Scottish National Portrait Gallery
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery aims to provide 'a unique visual history of Scotland, told through the portraits of those who shaped it'. The building alone is impressive enough, being the first purpose-built portrait gallery in the world – standing as a grand, neo-gothic building in red sandstone. Housing special exhibitions, two floors of portraits from the national collection, a shop and a cafe, the building feels small on entering but the exhibition space generously covers two floors. The main entrance hall is beautifully decorated with a frieze by William Holeas along the first-floor balustrade and a painted series of large-scale murals on the first floor. This makes the interior as worth going along to see as any exhibition it holds.
Additionally, the shop provides gifts for tourists as well as useful study guides and the cafe serves delicious hot main dishes and essential home-baked cakes. Other facilities that the gallery provides are a print room, reference section, library and an archive of negatives. These form invaluable resources for genealogists, students, scholars and any visitor interested in the people and history of Scotland (available by appointment only).
Upcoming events
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Venue Details
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
- Address
- 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
- Web
- http://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/page/2:298:3/
- pginfo@nationalgalleries.org
