The London Art scene: Where to go apart from the touristy places
If you do a Google search of 'London Art galleries’ you get a great list of the usual suspects, and some entries which may not be familiar but are not surprising either.
Suffice to say, I bop around my town quite a fair bit (what can I say, I love long walks) and found myself walking into quite a few Art spaces which aren’t actually new, but not very renowned either. What’s interesting to note is there are a lot of places who have started to host Art even though they are not traditional Art spaces, like Kew Gardens for example which despite being a botanical garden, also exhibit installations throughout the year (they did a truly magical exhibition of Chihuly glass installations).
The advantage of visiting large Art establishments is you can spend the whole day there and see quite a fair bit. With smaller Art spaces you can be done fairly quickly and then need to travel further before you can get to the next sight (here long walks come in handy.)
Over the years I’ve become quite tired of these traditional establishments; places like the Tate Modern and Tate Britain have completely lost all charm, not to mention any originality. Worth going once if you've never been, but I suppose as a born and raised Londoner I have outgrown the repeated visits to the national Art institutions. The Guardian even wrote a piece about how Art seems to end up at Tate Britain ‘to sleep’ (oh dear).
Below I’ve shared a few places which I think are worth going to, some of which are in fairly close proximity, and a few which actually aren't Art galleries but I think are still Art worthy, or at the very least are worthy of a visit for a unique experience. The list isn’t exhaustive, there are so many other unique galleries in London I haven’t listed here (such as Roca London Gallery by infamous architect Zaha Hadid and Gagosian to name but a couple. I’ve yet to swing by these two) but covers a selection of my niche favourites.
Such as:
Sotheby’s
Christie’s
Halcyon Gallery
HOFA (House of Fine Art)
Claridge’s Art Space
The Arts Club
de Gournay
London Glass Blowing
Eye of the Collector
Masterpiece London
Sotheby’s
Both Sotheby’s & Christie’s (number two on this list) are walking distance from each other and as you would already know, are auction houses. Like most places today, they’re trying to ramp up traffic and awareness and as such have started to promote their restaurants (you can pop in for lunch or a quick bite) or roam into their exhibitions which are surprisingly quite substantial.
2. Christie’s
3. Halcyon Gallery
There’s a Halcyon Gallery in Harrods, but I’m referring to the Halcyon Gallery on New Bond St. There are actually a whole cluster of galleries on and around New Bond St which are worth popping into. Not to mention New Bond St itself being such a vibe to walk down; not because of the luxury shops (they help, for sure) but because of the architecture and the cluster of side roads which lead to some really beautiful and novel shops. It was actually at The Halcyon gallery I first saw digital art many years ago, and it’s a medium they continue to curate. I’m not against digital art but I have yet to see anything which I think is truly special.
4. HOFA (House of fine art)
I really like the artwork curated in this space. It’s modern, experimental and the space is big enough for you to take some time to wander through, but small enough to not get bored. It’s got the feel of a traditional Art gallery but the content of a rebellious one. It’s a fine curation of Modern Art with international footing.
5. Claridge’s Art Space
There’s a trend creeping up around town; hotels launching patisseries (The Connaught and Cake & Flowers by The Dorchester) and as mentioned above, Art spaces popping up in unexpected places. Claridge’s Art Space is an example of the latter launched by the quintessentially British luxury hotel, Claridge’s. They also have a patisserie from which you can have a coffee and a cake before heading to the space (case in point about hotels launching stand alone patisseries) and I honestly did have one of the best croissants in London here. I’ve popped by the place a couple of times only to find it closed for renovation, so unfortunately here is my rather stylistic shot of a coffee and a pastry instead.
6. The Arts club
The Arts Club is one of the renowned private members club in London. Like with most places trying to push a unique selling point to differentiate itself, as the name suggests, this private members club focuses on artists and Art lovers. What’s exceptional is that their exhibitions are integrated into one of their Drawing Rooms so you can view the Art in context of a living space. The interior surrounding the Art certainly adds a magic touch to the experience making it immersive and uplifting. Though you do need to be a member to view the collection (or know someone who is) on occasion they open the doors to the public. Enquire online for a reservation.
7. de Gournay
de Gournay is a showroom, not an Art gallery, but I’m captivated enough by it to consider it to be one. de Gournay produce some of the finest hand painted, hand embroidered wall paper in the world (no exaggeration). They’ve done well to truly create a whole new world around their craft; it is breathtaking what you can do with artisan, luxury wallpaper. They also launched a beautiful visual book about their Art and rise in the interior industry (I’m a sucker for books on aesthetics) it also makes for a beautiful and unique coffee table book. Like most showrooms you’ll be forgiven for thinking you can’t just waltz in, but you absolutely can (and I always do :D).
8. London glassblowing studio
Probably not the first place you’d think to visit, but if you’re into aesthetics as a whole, it’s worth a trip. The London Glass Blowing studio is a small showroom filled with hand blown glass objects which you can also purchase, but the star attraction has got to be the glass blowing workshop they have at the back. You can stand and watch the craftsman in action, moulding and creating glass objects right in front of your eyes. It’s tucked away on a side road in Bermondsey which has a string of artisan shops as well as the Fashion & Textile Museum a stone throw away. What’s more, one of the participants of Netflix’s show on glass blowing Blown Away, Elliot Walker, exhibits his work here.
Glass blowing has truly been elevated into an art form, and when you see these pieces (as well as Chihuly’s) you will be able to understand why.
9. The Eye of The Collector
One of the newer Art Fairs around town, I did a whole post on The Eye of The Collector a couple of months back so won’t go into detail here. But like The Arts Club, it’s trying o differentiate itself from other Art Fairs by hosting it in a Historic residential building (a grand one of course) to view Art in context of a home. I really loved this fair; I loved the curation, it exhibited some unique pieces had a unique perspective, and it did exactly what Art should do, inspire, excite & contemplate.
10. Masterpiece London
Masterpiece, London is another famous Art Fair which I shared back in 2022. Although this isn’t limited to just the traditional kind of Art, but covers everything that falls under the realm of haute craftsmanship from interiors, jewellery, homeware, books right to something as unusual (yet incredibly beautiful) as raw minerals. Back in 2022 one of the exhibitors was even selling product sketches of Van Cleef & Arples jewellery which were design proofs from the haute joaillerie itself. They also run a series of talks and events, that including Art workshops for children so very family friendly and a great way to get little ones involved. Even though this fair has been running since 2010, I am not sure what its future holds as it was cancelled in 2023 due to rising costs. Nonetheless, it is one to keep an eye out on and worth visiting (should it continue :/).