Guildhall Art Gallery

Guildhall Art Gallery is housed in one of the buildings of the Guildhall complex - a symbol of London's wealth and prestige. The building was erected in 1885 in order to properly display the City of London Corporation's art collection, i.e. the city authorities of that time. Currently, there are about 4,000 in the gallery's collection. works of art that are presented at regularly changed temporary exhibitions (usually around 200-300 works are exhibited at the same time).

The collection of Victorian art is particularly well represented, including works of the most important pre-Raphaelites, headed by the creators of this trend - John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In the center of the Guildhall Art Gallery exhibition room is a painting by John Singleton Copley entitled "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782". The huge canvas measuring 3 by 7 m refers to the final period of the siege of Gibraltar, which the British defended victoriously against the French and Spaniards for nearly 4 years.

The current Guildhall Art Gallery building dates from 1999 - the previous one was destroyed by German bombs during World War II. In 1985, the remains of a Roman amphitheater were discovered under the foundations of a ruined building, which have been partially exposed and can now be viewed.