Exhibition designers and cultural sector specialists Nissen Richards Studio have joined the creative team charged with the complete renovation of the National Portrait Gallery over the coming three-year period, until its re-opening in spring 2023. 

The large-scale transformation project, entitled Inspiring People, is set to transform the National Portrait Gallery. With architectural re-modelling by Jamie Fobert Architects, and with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the £35.5 million refurbishment will create a new visitor entrance and public forecourt, a new learning centre and will see the transformation of the existing East Wing from offices to a new public space. There will also be a re-hang of the Collection, which covers the Tudor period to the present day, presenting a wider and more diverse selection of portraits. Nissen Richards Studio will be working on the new interpretation design possibilities that the renovation will allow.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with this appointment and to be working with the National Portrait Gallery, one of my favourite galleries, on this landmark project” Pippa Nissen, Director of Nissen Richards Studio commented. “We look forward to the creative challenges of working with the curatorial team to create a world-leading interpretation of portraiture, including looking at how visitors engage with displays and encouraging new viewing audiences, teasing out the opportunities around each individual hang.”

In addition to the work at St Martin’s Place, Inspiring People will also see the Gallery’s most extensive programme of activities nationwide reaching new audiences locally, regionally and online. Activity includes new partnerships with museums, communities and schools across the UK. 

Ros Lawler, Chief Operating Officer, National Portrait Gallery, London said: “We are delighted to be working with Nissen Richards Studio to help us realise our goal of transforming the National Portrait Gallery through our Inspiring People project. The renewed building will allow us to be more welcoming, engaging and accessible to all, with new and refurbished galleries for exhibitions and the permanent Collection and better quality learning facilities.”

Details of the Project’s Scope:

Redisplaying the Collection

The project will provide the unique opportunity to re-display the entire Collection as well as upgrade the gallery spaces, while celebrating the existing architecture and decorative features. Maintaining a chronological approach, the comprehensive top-to-bottom re-hang will display works that are relevant to a wider range of audiences. Set amongst the Gallery’s best-loved paintings will be more works from its collection of 250,000 photographs, ranging from 1840 to the present day.

Creating a New Entrance

Jamie Fobert Architects have designed a new entrance and forecourt for the North Façade of the Gallery to create a more welcoming and generous entrance space and relieve existing congested visitor access. Three windows will be altered to form doorways leading to a new, open entrance hall, which will link with the Ondaatje Wing Main Hall and create better connections within the building. The proposed forecourt is designed to be a high-quality civic space for both the public and Gallery visitors. 

Reopening the East Wing

The East Wing of the Gallery, part of the original 1896 building, will be reopened to the public. This includes converting what is currently office space back into stunning top-lit galleries on the first floor. The ground floor and basement levels will be refurbished, providing a flexible gallery and social space with its own dedicated entrance and the extension of our brick vaulted Portrait Café.

Establishing a Learning Centre

Inspiring People will transform the quality of education provision at the Gallery through the creation of a much-improved Learning Centre. The new Centre will increase the Gallery’s learning spaces from one studio to three. Each studio will have specialist equipment and breakout space, offering a better learning experience for schools, families, young people, community groups and adult learners.

Working with Communities

An ambitious programme of nationwide activities will bring the Gallery closer to communities around the country. Citizen UK, a partnership with community groups in Croydon, Ealing, Tower Hamlets and Wolverhampton will explore stories of migration and movement and People Powered, a series of exhibitions created with partners in Brent, Ilford, Hillingdon, Hertfordshire and Teesside, will uncover the experiences of communities involved in creating world class exports. A National Skills Sharing Partnership with museums and galleries around the UK will create a learning network with a focus on the theme ‘What is a portrait?’

London’s National Portrait Gallery was the first portrait gallery in the world. It is housed in a Grade I-Listed building, which, in 1896, was built specifically to create a permanent home for the national collection of portraits. Inspiring People has focussed on revealing and making the most of every part of this handsome and richly decorative building.

Led by Jamie Fobert Architects, alongside heritage architects Purcell and a highly skilled design team, there has been a complete refurbishment and reconsideration of the building. The architectural interventions can be understood as a number of parallel projects, from a new public forecourt, which leads to a generous entry hall, to the creation of a dynamic new learning centre. The project has opened up windows, doors and areas that have been hidden for decades. By creating a new accessible entrance into the historic façade, the building has been reorientated to face the city, presenting a generous welcome and connecting the Gallery with the vibrant area of London on its doorstep.

Alongside the architectural project, the National Portrait Gallery has undertaken a comprehensive re-display and reinterpretation of the world's largest collection of portraits which places people at its heart, to tell a richer story of history and culture in the United Kingdom.

From the outset of the project, the Gallery has set out its key objectives for Inspiring People as follows:

-To enhance the identity, profile and physical presence of the National Portrait Gallery, making the building accessible and welcoming to the widest and most diverse audience.

-To preserve and enhance the architectural qualities of this fine Victorian building and Grade I Listed heritage asset, and to bring back to public life areas long closed and unappreciated, in particular, the East Wing. 

-To create a fit-for-purpose Learning Centre which will transform the experience of its users. 

-To enable an ambitious, engaging, comprehensive and unified re-display of the Collection, top-to-bottom, from the Tudors to now.

-To ensure the Gallery’s ability to be sustainable, and to increase opportunities to generate income, safeguarding its future.

The National Portrait Gallery is housed in a purpose-built Grade I-Listed building, designed by Ewan Christian and opened in 1896. Ewan Christian was well known at the time as an ecclesiastical architect, but this was his first public building. Highly decorated features — large round-headed arches, windows and doors, Corinthian pilasters, delicate columns, elaborate cornices and roundels — contribute to the character and appearance of this beautiful building.

Christian configured most of the galleries in a large block within the North Wing, and a second set of galleries along a narrow strip of land which runs down the East side of the National Gallery. Connecting these two Wings was an entrance block with a grand stair.

The galleries were extended with the later addition of the Duveen wing in the 1930s by the Government Office of Works, thanks to a donation from Joseph Duveen, and designed by the Architect Sir Richard Allison. More recently, Dixon Jones’s Ondaatje Wing, which opened in 2000, improved circulation and added a generous inner hall, basement lecture theatre and, for the first time, restaurant and café spaces.

THE ARCHITECTS: A COLLABORATION

Over the past five years, Jamie Fobert Architects has led the design team through all stages of the project, bringing to bear their expertise in the design of galleries and public buildings and working with complex historic sites.

In their role as collaborating Heritage Architect, Purcell, led by Liz Smith, have been integral to the design process, working alongside Jamie Fobert Architects through all project stages from the design competition to project delivery. The strong collaboration enabled the design thinking to evolve from an understanding of what might be possible in such a significant heritage context.

Purcell’s expertise in historical research informed Jamie Fobert Architects’s design decisions, forming an interaction between past, present and future, identifying opportunities for change that transform and enrich the visitor experience with a coherent holistic harmony that lets Ewan Christian’s architectural voice soar through into the new light filled foyer and galleries.

TURNING TO FACE THE CITY

A central idea of the project has been to create a generous new entrance for the National Portrait Gallery and at the same time to transform the under-used public realm to the north into a new forecourt which serves both the city and the Gallery.

Although rich in architectural detail and ornament, the National Portrait Gallery’s original entrance was easily missed. At the time the building was being designed, Charing Cross Road was only just being formed, cutting through “a neighbourhood of crime and vice since Hogarth’s day, if not earlier,” as described by Pevsner. It is believed that Christian placed the entrance pavilion at the East end of the building, within sight of St Martin’s in the Fields, to bring it as close as possible to the more reputable areas of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to the south.

When the design team first considered the project, the area of public realm to the north of the Gallery comprised hard-landscaped paths with planting surrounded by 1950s railings, as well as the 1910 memorial statue of actor-manager Sir Henry Irving. Although well maintained, there was no opportunity for the public to sit or gather. Here, Jamie Fobert Architects has created a welcoming and characterful public space, which acts as gathering space and a threshold between the city and the Gallery.

Broad granite steps lead up to a bridge element that crosses an existing lightwell around the building’s double basement and connects to the new entrance. By extending the forecourt paving across the bridge’s surface and wrapping the original railings which lined the lightwell back on its edge, the bridge reads not as an independent element but as a continuation of the public realm. A very gentle inclined surface covers the western side of the forecourt, providing an accessible route directly into the main entrance.

Granite was chosen for the new forecourt surface, in part for its durability in an urban setting, but also because the new surface begins right next to the three new doorways which have been cut out of the granite base of the building. With a light cleaning and conservation of the façade, overseen by Purcell, and with space to view it from, the beauty of Ewan Christian’s architecture can now be reappreciated.

By relocating the Sir Henry Irving Memorial Statue closer to Charing Cross Road and shifting its orientation slightly to the East, the memorial is freed from the Gallery façade to look out towards Theatreland. It has been given a generous space, lined with a long bench where the public can gather and rest. Carved from large blocks of Irish granite, the bench responds to the bend of Charing Cross Road, and merges with a new sign announcing the Gallery. The new public space has been named Ross Place following the generous donation of the Ross Foundation for this work.

Working with Westminster

The National Portrait Gallery ownership ends at the lightwell in front of the North façade. The triangle of land on which the forecourt works have taken place is owned and managed by Westminster City Council.

Jamie Fobert Architects worked closely with Anju Banga and her team at Westminster Highways to agree the design of the inclined surface, bench and steps. The large stone elements were procured by the Gallery’s main contractors, Gilbert-Ash, and then installed by Westminster-approved contractors, Conway.

A NEW ENTRANCE HALL

Three of the original windows on the North façade have been altered, their Portland stone transoms and granite sills cut away to form 4m-high doorways. New bronze doors will carry a specially commissioned artwork which addresses the public realm when the doors are closed and which is visible on the reveal when the doors are open.

From Ross Place, the three doors lead into a generous new entrance hall, carved from the historic fabric of Ewan Christian’s original building. The removal of the walls and the design of the massive beams which carry the load of the building above was overseen by the structural engineers, Price and Myers. The language of the space is as bold as it is generous. More than double the size of Christian’s original lobby, the new entrance hall includes two bronze-framed glass screens and doors which form a lobby that resolves issues of security and environmental conditioning. In this welcoming space, newly-arrived visitors immediately see art on display: both the art commission on the doors and a presentation of historic and contemporary busts (installation by Nissen Richards Studios).

The formation of the new hall, in conjunction with the existing stair and entrance, defined a pocket of space at the corner of the building, facing the curve of Charing Cross Road. Jamie Fobert Architects recognised an opportunity to place the Gallery’s shop here, giving it prominence and also allowing the beautiful historic windows in this to be opened up. Overall, there is now less retail space, but it has been consolidated and much better placed. Since this space used for retail and not the display of sensitive artworks, the windows beautifully restored by Purcell can remain open, allowing a visual connection with the city.

From the new entrance hall, a single large opening connects through to the Ondaatje Hall and the galleries beyond.

Restoration of historic mosaics by Purcell

Within the Grade I-listed building, Purcell led the restoration of all historic finishes. One of the significant early discoveries was Ewan Christian’s use of materials as a coding system, where circulation spaces were expressed as mosaic. The original historic mosaics have been extensively repaired and re-presented by Purcell.

New mosaics in the entrance hall by Jamie Fobert Architects

Jamie Fobert Architects has continued Ewan Christian’s motif of mosaic as an indicator of circulation. In the new entrance hall, Jamie Fobert Architects has used Calacatta Oro marble rough-cut into large mosaic tiles and set into a ground concrete aggregate. These new floors refer to Carlo Scarpa’s marble mosaics, but at the same time they are very specific to this place: they are in conversation with the mosaics of Ewan Christian’s building.

Reconfiguration of the Ondaatje Hall

In 1999, Dixon Jones Architects undertook a major addition to the Galley with the construction of the Ondaatje Wing, which infilled the service courtyard between the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The Ondaatje Wing provided greatly improved visitor services, the Tudor Gallery and a rooftop restaurant with spectacular views looking south. At that time, a service route for vehicles was required to be maintained under the west end of the hall to access the National Gallery. This was resolved by Dixon Jones by raising a mezzanine in the western half of the ground floor, accessed by a grand stair.

As this route was no longer required, it was possible to remove the mezzanine and construct in its place a new ground floor gallery. Named The National Lottery Heritage Fund Gallery, this new space showcases some of the National Portrait Gallery’s most recent acquisitions and commissions.

Entering the building via the new entrance hall, visitors arrive in the centre of the Ondaatje Hall, where different options for navigating the building unfold: visitors can go ahead to ascend the escalator; they can turn left to access Christian’s original grand stair; or, they can turn right and walk directly through the gallery to the previously inaccessible existing lifts and core.

A new welcome desk has been placed in the centre of the Ondaatje Hall, facing visitors arriving from both the old and new entrances. Dixon Jones’ escalator has been retained, but cloaked by a wall which follows its incline. Above, the hanging balcony and Tudor Gallery have been refurbished. Throughout the Inspiring People design process, Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones generously engaged with the project.

BRINGING THE ORIGINAL GALLERIES BACK TO LIFE

The project has included the complete restoration of all the gallery spaces, bringing back the intention of the original architect as much as possible. Working with Purcell, blocked windows have been opened; rooflights covered in the Second World War have been reinstated; and infilled arches have been reopened. The gallery floors that had faded to a pale yellow in sunlight have been brought back to the deep lustre of the original teak. The ceilings of all the galleries have been restored and unified with a single colour. Lighting, which used to hang at the cornice level at the centre of each gallery, has been lifted by engineers Max Fordham up into the lanterns of Floor 3 galleries, so it virtually disappears from view.

In collaboration with Nicholas Cullinan and the Gallery’s curators, the interpretation designers, Nissen Richards Studio, developed a new colour scheme for the fabric wall linings on Floor 3 and painted plasterwork on the Floor 2, unifying the gallery spaces and giving clarity to the visitor experience. A number of donors contributed funds to the gallery restoration. The most significant gift in the Gallery’s history was given by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, for whom nine galleries on Floor 2 of the building have been renamed.

THE MILDRED & SIMON PALLEY LEARNING CENTRE

In the 1980s, the National Portrait Gallery created the first art Learning Centre in the UK in one of the basement spaces. A central objective of the Inspiring People project had always been to transform the quality of learning provision through the creation of a fit-for-purpose Learning Centre.

The original building had two basement levels, built in vaults of engineering brick, which were mainly used as support spaces. Originally, the two-storey courtyard to the north of the building allowed daylight into these service spaces, however, the lower level had been infilled in the 1980s for storage purposes, and this had altered the proportions of the courtyard and destroyed some of the granite façade. With the removal of those infill elements, the lower basements have been restored to their original form and the courtyard to its original proportions. A new Learning Centre was then formed in these newly revealed spaces and in a glazed double-height space under the new entrance bridge, with all the learning studios focussed on the courtyard. Purcell oversaw the restoration of the damaged granite façades and brick vaults. The two levels of the Learning Centre are joined with a dedicated lift and a new, curving stair within a volume cut out of the building.

The Mildred and Simon Palley Learning Centre accommodates much-improved learning facilities such as separate wet and dry studio spaces, specialist equipment, dedicated WCs, lockers and a cloakroom, with generous breakout space, both indoors and outdoors. The centre shares a multipurpose space with the Ondaatje Lecture Theatre, built as part of the Dixon Jones project in 2000. This new Learning Centre will support the extraordinary range of innovative programmes currently run by the Gallery’s dedicated team and offer a better experience for schools, families, young people, community groups and adult learners.

The Weston Wing (formerly the East Wing)

The parcel of land given to the National Portrait Gallery in 1896 included a narrow strip of land running north to south along the eastern edge of the National Gallery. Christian designed a series of enfilade galleries on two levels, and a vaulted basement below. When stable environmental conditions became a requirement for the display of the National Collection, these spaces were abandoned as galleries. They were afterwards used primarily as offices, and partially occupied with a shop on part of the ground floor and a café in part of the basement. Working closely with Max Fordham and Purcell, Jamie Fobert Architects has brought the entire wing back into public use as climate-controlled galleries and extended café spaces. Floor 1 of the Weston Wing is now home to the Gallery’s contemporary collection.

At the far end of the East Wing, Ewan Christian’s original stair had been destroyed by a WWII bomb. Later, the Department of Works installed a narrow fire stair and goods lift and sub-divided each floor to contain kitchen and WC facilities for staff. Jamie Fobert Architects reconfigured this core and installed a new accessible lift and a catering lift, as well as a new steel and timber stair for visitors which winds all the way up from the lower basement to the top floor. A Victorian urban gesture—the curve of the Charing Cross Road—which has been used as the motif for the Gallery’s new furniture also appears here on the new Weston Wing stair, in the form of the double bend in the balustrades. The Garfield Weston Foundation’s generous gift for the transformation of this work is reflected in the naming of the wing. The fit-out of the Weston Wing ground floor café and basement restaurant was carried out by Daisy Green for the National Portrait Gallery’s Commercial Team.

Terrazzo floor discovery 

The ground floor of the East Wing had been greatly reconfigured over many years. Since 1999, there had been a raised floor which gave level access from the original entrance hall through to a lift and stair leading to the café below. There was no public entry to the Rotunda and spaces beyond. 

The design team reasonably assumed that there would be no original fabric underneath these later works, so it was a great surprise when one morning the main contractor, Gilbert-Ash, lifted old carpet tiles under the raised floor to reveal a small fragment of red terrazzo. Working closely with Purcell, the full extent of the surviving original floor was revealed. Although it had been destroyed where the lift and stair had been, in the two main rooms it had survived, albeit damaged by the insertion of electrical trenches. Purcell made a careful repair, allowing the repairs to be just visible, ghost-like. 

Where sections of the original terrazzo had been lost, Jamie Fobert Architects used a similar method to the entrance hall floor, but here, because of the scale of the room, the marble pieces were cut a little smaller and Rosso Levanto marble was chosen, to sit comfortably with the adjacent historic red terrazzo. 

Windows and rooflights

In the original building, the paintings and sculptures were only viewed in daylight; there was no artificial lighting of any kind. The galleries were open during daylight hours and closed at dusk. In the 1930s, the Gallery installed electric lighting and a process began where windows were stripped of their timber architraves and sills and painted black to create hanging space. This gave the impression from the outside that the building was closed. It was decided that Ewan Christian’s original intention should be brought back, with the quantity of light mitigated through the use of films and fabric screens on the original windows. Purcell led the restoration of the Floor 2 galleries, working with Max Fordham to control the levels of daylight within.

Display Cases

Jamie Fobert Architects and Nissen Richards Studio collaborated on the new furniture which inhabits all of the galleries. The concept for the cases was developed by Jamie Fobert Architects and incorporates the chamfered corners of Ewan Christian’s original architecture. These were further developed by Nissen Richards Studio, with the curators, to incorporate text blocks in an angled panel. Variations of the case were developed by Nissen Richards Studios, responding to the content developed by the Gallery.

New gallery benches

In keeping with all aspects of the Inspiring People project, the new bench has been designed by Jamie Fobert Architects to be a bridge between the past and the future. With chamfered details which reference the architecture of Ewan Christian’s original building, and with a contemporary, fluid form, the bench is designed to sit in the centre of each gallery. Visitors can sit on either side of the curved back rest to view portraits on different walls.

Welcome desk

The new welcome desk is placed in the centre of the Ondaatje Hall. Built in a combination of solid walnut and veneered panels, its curving form gestures towards the location of the escalator, which takes visitors up to see the Collection. As with the other pieces of furniture designed by Jamie Fobert Architects, the welcome desk plays on some of the details of Christian’s historic building and the character of historic furniture, but in contemporary language.

Team:

Jamie Fobert Architects: Architect and Lead Consultant

Purcell: Heritage Architect

Max Fordham: LLP MEP Engineer 

Price & Myers: Structural Engineer

Holmes Wood: Wayfinding and Donor Recognition

OFR: Fire Consultant 

Lichfields: Planning Consultant

Nissen Richards Studio: Interpretation Designer

Alex Cochrane: Architects Retail Designer

Gardiner & Theobald: Project Manager

Turner & Townsend: Quantity Surveyor

Gilbert-Ash: Main Contractor

Restore London: Stone Contractor

Olivier Hess, Jim Stephenson:Photographers

Materials Used:

Opus Magnum: Joinery (welcome desk)

Benchmark: Joinery (gallery benches)

Bann: Joinery and flooring

Keenwood: Specialist joinery

Hamilton Acoustic: Solutions Acoustic Lining Specialist 

Fabrite Metalworker: FGM Joinery