The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, which holds a collection of Western European paintings from the 13th to the 19th century and offers free entry.
The National Gallery is the UK's national collection of Western European painting, in Trafalgar Square in the heart of London. Its own page says it holds over 2,600 works, mainly European paintings from the 13th to 19th centuries, while Wikipedia gives more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900, so the count depends on how you measure it. Highlights include the Arnolfini Portrait, the Rokeby Venus, The Fighting Temeraire and Sunflowers. Its paintings are on show 361 days a year and entry to the main collection is free.
The gallery's objectives, set out in its constitution, are "to care for the collection, to enhance it for future generations, and to study it". That is the closest thing to a mission statement we found. The gallery opened in 1824, when the government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, first showing them at No. 100 Pall Mall before moving to Trafalgar Square in 1838. William Wilkins designed the main building, and the Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, was added in 1991.
The National Gallery has one site in London, in the City of Westminster at Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN. Wikipedia records 4,147,544 visitors in 2025. In September 2025 the gallery announced Project Domani, an expansion with a new wing north of the Sainsbury Wing, which it expects to open in the early 2030s. Sir Gabriele Finaldi has been its director since 2015, the fifteenth director since Sir Charles Lock Eastlake began in 1855.
We could not find a page describing the gallery's culture or staff numbers. Its website lists a learning section for primary and secondary schools, a programme for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, courses, and the Roden Centre for Creative Learning, plus a research section with a library and archive and research events. Wikipedia reports that a 2019 employment tribunal found the gallery had wrongly classed its educators as self-employed contractors and granted them worker status, which shows that educators form an important part of its team.
A national gallery depends on many roles. Curators research and display the paintings; conservators and scientists look after them; educators and learning teams teach school groups, families and adults; librarians and archivists look after the research collection; and visitor-experience, security, shop and cafe staff welcome people each day. Behind them are teams in exhibitions, events, marketing, digital, fundraising, finance and people. If you want a job connected to paintings and history in central London, the gallery's website lists vacancies.
Website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk
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