Newport Street Gallery — Attraction in London

This is Damien Hirst’s large, beautiful gallery that has been open, apparently, for about a decade. It used to be an old building but has been lovingly converted into a wonderful place, with several large and very tall ceilings. Some natural light, high quality finishes and thoughtful architecture abound. It gives the impression that money was no object when deciding how to make the gallery.

There is a a decent-sized café called, oddly, The Pharmacy – but when you get to it you realise the name is not so strange. It is themed and decorated as a pharmacy, stuffed full of works by Hirst on pharmacy themes – there are vitrines of packages, and of surgical tools; the seats are giant drug pills; the seats have custom themed decoration, and more. Plus butterflies. Delightful! The only problem is that I have never seen it actually staffed and in use. Some of my pictures give an idea of the look.

One the few occasions I have visited, it has been empty. More staff than visitors. Apparently that is less true on weekends.

It is about 5 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop or about 15 minutes from the underground.

I didn’t much enjoy the exhibition I saw on my latest visit, for all its brilliant artistry. The entire building was full of paintings all in much the same style and with a limited range of themes. Very different sizes to be fair. I suppose it is the kind of display that would be useful if you are looking for source material for a Masters or Doctorate thesis about this series of paintings; but not so great if you just want a normal gallery visit experience. Still, I look forward to seeing other exhibitions...

This is my second visit to the Newport Street Gallery, my first being to see the amazing John Hoyland retrospective.

My visit this time was to see 'A great light', an exhibition by one of the 20th centuries greatest stained glass artists, Brian Clarke.

The gallery is superbly suited to showing monumental works, and it didn't disappoint with this amazing exhibition.

Clarke is an absolute master of his art, and the shows curators have done a terrific job.

The lighting of Clarkes 'lead on lead' works, especially those pieces in homage to his mother, was sublime.

A lovely welcome by the reception staff and great information from the gallery invigilator s made for a great visit.

The only downside to my visit was the very poor cafe facilities. A choice of dreadful overpriced vending machine coffee, and the only food available, again via a vending machine, was crisps and chocolate. A case of style...

The Newport Street Gallery is an art gallery in London, England which displays works selected from the personal art collection of Damien Hirst. It is located on Newport Street Vauxhall. Newport Street Gallery is the realisation of Hirst’s long-term ambition to share his art collection with the public. Hirst announced plans for the gallery in March 2012, and it opened in October 2015. It includes a cafe, gallery shop and offices for Hirst's company.

The building is a former theatre carpentry and scenery production workshop, redesigned by Caruso St John. The design was praised for its "virtuosity", and in October 2016 it won the RIBA Stirling Prize. The gallery spans 37,000 square feet and includes six exhibition spaces – one with a ceiling height of 11 metres – split...