National Gallery

My wife and I booked to view two National Gallery exhibitions, "The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gaugin Portraits' and 'Leonardo Experience a Masterpiece'. These are expensive at £24 and £20 respectively so for my wife and I this amounted to £98. I was ill and unable to travel to the exhibitions in January so my wife and I cancelled our trip. Unfortunately, the National Gallery does not allow refunds nor an opportunity to re-book for another date using the monies already paid. Inflexible! We won't be booking again, the most we would do isn just turn up but of course there is always the danger that tickets are sold out on the day.

My 9 year old daughter and I visited on a rainy morning in the hope of seeing Vincent Van Goghs’ ‘Sunflowers’ but unfortunately the picture wasn’t there which we didn’t see made clear on the website and it was at the end of the tour so abit of a bummer to end on.
Obviously, due to the time period, a lot of the art at the beginning of the tour was Christian in nature and my daughter did remark that she had never seen so much Jesus in her life - all be it painted beautifully multiple times.
The gallery houses some excellent pieces of art and we did get to enjoy works from the likes of Rubens, Monet and Vincent Van Goghs’ ‘Wheat field’ among others.
The staff were really friendly and enforced correct mask wearing and social distancing which was great as a lot of people in London don’t seem to realise that masks are for your mouth AND nose!
Overall, very enjoyable morning and worth the wait in the rain to get in. Note that you will have to reserve your entry time before hand if you’d like to visit - it’s free but donations are always welcomed. The building itself is worth a visit as there is some stunning architecture inside and out. Plan a couple of hours and wear comfy shoes as there’s a lot of walking and standing involved

We have now been twice in August to this Gallery. We live in London and have avoided it is the past as it has been so full of tourist groups that it is almost impossible to get anywhere near the pictures. Not any more!
You have to book online for a slot (free) & the slots are in 15 minute intervals. That means that there are no large groups.
There are then 3 routes you can take - called A, B & C(!). If you wish, you can do all the routes one after the other, but that would be somewhat overkill and exhausting. You are not time-limited, so you could stay there for the whole day if you wish.
The lack of other people varies room by room, but on the A route (the oldest art) I often had a whole room to myself (including the small Leonardo room).from early medieval to the 20th century. Lots of famous names: for example there are 2 room of paintings by Rubens.
If you like art, then this really is the optimum time to go.
The variety of art is exceptional -

Fantastic place. A feast for the eyes with room upon room of famous, important art. There's not too much to say except that it gets very very busy at peak holidays and weekends. Avoid those times if you can, especially as hoards of people crowd the most famous paintings. But they're not really looking at the paintings. They're clicking and doing selfies. Entry is free which is great but obviously makes it a tourist pull. If you want to look at and appreciate art and longer go at quieter times or seek out the quieter rooms. There is a fairly good restaurant, a cafe and the usual shops. Actually they do some nice things to but with some reasonably priced gifts. Exhibitions are usually good but carry a fee.

We came to London for the weekend early in the New Year as this is a visit we often like to do. In planning what to do, we were aware the Gauguin exhibition was due to finish the following weekend, so we thought it might be a good option. We didn’t know an awful lot about the man, but strangely enough we had just seen a film about Van Goth in which he had a minor role. And we did know he had visited the Pacific.
As usual, we chose to pay for headphones as we believe they are essential to make the best of the experience. I thought the Exhibition was just right. It wasn’t too long. It had enough of the items of Gauguin’s life covered and we just found. And it was very informative. If you haven’t seen it, go to it in the next few days!

My daughter bought us tickets for the “Leonardo experience a masterpiece” at The National Gallery as we are in awe of his work, but.oh my.it’s over in a flash and extremely disappointing for the high price charged.
There are 4 “rooms”, 2 of which contain literally nothing. Such a shame it’s not a collection of his work and just focuses on one painting-which we have seen many times on previous visitsfor free.
Considering we went to the Van Gogh virtual experience in York, which was incredible, this was shockingly bad.
Before you know it, you’re in the gift shop.
I’ve only given 4 stars because we absolutely adore the National Gallery but shame on them for this underwhelming “experience”

Located right off Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery is a must whilst in London. Admission is free, but special exhibitions require an addition fee. The architecture Of the museum as well as the collection itself are worth the time. The gallery with the French impressions features some classic pieces such as VanGogh’s Sunflowers. Allow at least an hour, more if you are a serious art lover.

You have to book online and arrive 15 minutes prior to your slot - all fine.
We arrived to the gallery front steps which is now the exit only, spoke to the only polite member of staff who said queuing is round the side now and from this point the visit went down hill. The outdoor queueing system is not clear; the two members of staff were so rude, putting their hand up all the time at you, not explaining what was going on, appeared to be letting random people in. They were most interested in cyclists and two women for a large amount of time. It was very stressful, very abrupt and unclear management from the two members of staff made us feel a nuisance and unwanted. One man behind us mumbled the same and walked in as he should have been let in earlier but the two men were too busy talking to the two women. One very old woman attempted to go into the gallery but did not have a booked ticket. She was immediately and curtly dismissed. Perhaps some exception could be taken. Book a slot for here later on? No advice, no heart. It was disgusting to see and I wish I had stepped in. I would highly recommend more informative signage and better trained staff. I know this is a stressful time but I and others do not want to be treated like cattle.

Upon entry I wanted to use the toilet facilities; there was a member of staff sweeping the floor who then left but the toilet cubicals were disgusting. Two toilets were covered in urine so I had to leave. We had tickets for the Sin exhibition again we were greeted by a member of staff putting her hand in up my face. I produced my tickets but was told to wait. This was just rude. Please put a sign up or a rope up to make it clear when and when not to enter. It really ruined the day for us. I’ve never had so many staff members put their hand up in my face rather than verbally communicating and was made to feel so unwelcome. This is supposed to be the people’s gallery and we shouldn’t be treated like this. I Won’t be going again.

The National Gallery is a must for any visitor to London - art enthusiast or not. The halls of the National Gallery hold some of the finest (and most recognizable) artistic masterpieces.

I visited the gallery on a weekday afternoon and did not find it too crowded. To help my untrained eye I rented the audio guide (provided by voluntary contribution) which was easy to use and provides excellent background information on the 30 highlighted paintings and many others. A free full color map was provided that contained images and directions to the highlights.

I was able to view works by Botticelli, Raphael, Michelangelo, Monet, Rembrandt and many many more. My personal favorites were The Virgin of the Rocks (Da Vinci) and Sunflowers (Van Gogh). I also visited works by Vermeer who was the subject of a recent film Girl with a Pearl Earring.

I was so longing to see this exibition. Got the tickets online and it was £16, otherwise the rest of the gallery was free to walk around. The exibition was in four rooms and in one word great. After the exibition went around some rooms before the gallery got closed and can say - will go back as one cant see all in one go or even in 2 days. So many masterpieces. Also worth visiting gift shop. Thank you staff for directions and the job you do!