The world’s first purpose-built public art gallery, the small Dulwich Picture Gallery was designed by architect Sir John Soane and opened in 1817 to house nearby Dulwich College’s collection of paintings by the Old Masters, including work by Rembrandt, Rubens, Gainsborough, Poussin and Canaletto. Unusually, the gallery also includes a mausoleum for its founders, lit by a moody lumière mystérieuse (mysterious light) created with tinted glass placed among the pictures. An audio guide is included in the ticket price.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
22.54 MILES
The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…
4.12 MILES
A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…
4.31 MILES
One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…
5.2 MILES
With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…
4.72 MILES
Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…
4.32 MILES
Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…
4.33 MILES
Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…
5.35 MILES
With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…
Nearby attractions
0.32 MILES
With its hectares of green space and much-loved bicycle hire putting fleets of novel, low-slung bikes under the feet of enthusiastic kids, Dulwich Park is…
0.99 MILES
Sydenham Hill Wood is an intriguingly incongruous patch of wilderness that has an air of secrecy about it, despite being surrounded on all sides by the…
1.13 MILES
This 1901 art-nouveau building, with its clock tower and mosaics, was specially designed to house the collection of wealthy tea merchant, Victorian…
4. Brixton Village & Market Row
1.58 MILES
This revitalised covered market, once the dilapidated 1930s Granville Arcade, has enjoyed an eye-catching renaissance. More than 130 traders have set up…
1.59 MILES
The Black Cultural Archives is the only centre in the country devoted to preserving and telling the stories of African and Caribbean people in the UK…
1.74 MILES
Quite a sight (and terrific photo-op) and built for John Ashby in 1816, this is the closest windmill to central London still in existence. Later powered…
1.76 MILES
Named after the prodigious glass-and-iron palace erected for the Great Exhibition in 1851 and moved here from Hyde Park in 1854, this huge park makes for…
1.86 MILES
This small museum affords a look at the history of Crystal Palace and local history. A guided tour takes place at noon on the first Sunday of each month,…