Dulwich Picture Gallery

Despite living close by for almost four years, I had failed to make it to Dulwich Picture Gallery until last weekend (I am closer to the Horniman Museum, you see). Dulwich Picture Gallery is the oldest public art gallery in England, and it's been open to the public since 1817 (more history here). The building was designed by Sir John Soane. 

  

The gallery has paintings, furniture and... other things (what do you classify vases and clocks as? Homewares sounds like a department in BHS). The building's a lot lighter than you might expect.

(If you look closely at the penultimate picture there it's a view of inside the gallery, and you can see a version of the last picture - some of the details, such as the weird lion, were only discovered in later cleaning, so it doesn't look exactly the same)

Oh, and finally, outside the gallery there's a rather odd phone box...

While on balance I'm still more loyal to the Horniman (they have an aquarium in the basement, which basically trumps pretty much everything), I'm really glad that we went on this walk, and DPG a small gallery that doesn't feel crowded the way the bigger ones up in town can. I'd recommend it if you're in the area, and if it's a nice day you're only over the road from Dulwich Park. 

Website: http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/