National Gallery, London

The National Gallery is the grand art museum occupying this Trafalgar Square building. Its collection began in 1824 with the government’s purchase of 38 paintings from John Julius Angerstein’s heirs, and it now contains more than 2,300 works spanning the mid-13th century to 1900. The building before you was designed by William Wilkins, with construction starting in 1832 and the doors opening to visitors in 1838.

Its Georgian architecture gives the façade a measured, formal presence, while the frontage facing Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from that era. The museum’s story is unusual among European national galleries: it was not created by taking over a royal collection. Instead, private gifts became crucial, eventually supplying two-thirds of what it holds.

The collection ranges across major developments in Western painting, with important works from Giotto to Cézanne. The broad frontage belongs to a building that has grown around an enduring original face; the Sainsbury Wing, added in 1991, extends the gallery in a markedly different architectural language. This is a place where a national collection began with a purchase, then expanded through public generosity.