Wolverhampton Art Gallery — Attraction in Wolverhampton

Went into the cafe at noon and I was the only customer. Several staff in the kitchen, and one out front. I ordered and paid for the sandwich, and waited. And waited some more. The member of staff out front was joined by another, and they started chatting. I waited some more. They chatted some more. Twenty plus minutes past; I could hear the staff in the kitchen chatting as well. A second customer came in; they took her order. More chatting. After half an hour I approached the staff to ask why it takes half an hour, in an almost deserted cafe, to make a simple sandwich. She briefly breaks off from her conversation to say "Oh. I forgot to press the button".

My sandwich eventually arrives, and the staff continue to chat and ignore customers. It was a pathetically thin affair, with a nasty (and chemically) tasting glob of coleslaw, and indistinct salad. It takes me less than a minute to finish. I leave, now late, continuing to be ignored by the chatting staff, and buy a portion of chips elsewhere to fill up.

This cafe needs a cull of staff to actually improve it. Take out the ones who are only there to talk to other staff (and distract them from customers) and it will be a better cafe. Judging by the lack of customers, economics will probably cause this anyway.

Despite my experience I'll still use the gallery itself, which is great and there's always a lot to see here. However, rather than be ignored/treated rudely, and being ripped off with inadequate and poor-quality food, I'll bring my own sandwiches in future and avoiding the...

A very interesting gallery, with a very good mix of traditional and contemporary art. On my visit I was aware of the strong emphasis on education for children. There were many young families involved in lots of activities. By chance I briefly met and spoke to Marguerite Nugent, the manager of the gallery. I was very impressed with her enthusiasm and commitment to her job, and like her staff, a very warm and welcoming person. I was visiting the gallery to see the the brilliant Singh Twins exhibition, Slaves of Fashion. This is an extremely beautiful and politically powerful portrayal of the history of Indian textiles, colonial exploitation and enslavement. The exhibition also has a strong, contemporary relevance to today's world of fashion, corporate greed, exploitation and the resultant global effect on the environment and consumerism. This exhibition was previously exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Although a much smaller gallery, Wolverhampton have portrayed the exhibition with...

The most outstanding artwork of international importance in the collection is the large-scale painting Peace and Plenty Binding the Arrows of War (1614) by the Flemish Baroque painter Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen (ca. 1567/1576–1632). Commissioned and paid for by the Antwerp Guild of Old Crossbowmen, it was a pendant to the Rubens’s Crowning of the Victor. In the 1800s, the city's guilds were broken up and their treasures dispersed. Janssen's picture eventually found its way to a Mrs Thornley of Birmingham. In 1885, she sold it to Wolverhampton Art Gallery. This is the only painting by Janssens in any British public collection and a splendid example of Flemish Baroque art.

Apart from the Janssens painting, the collection of Old Masters is relatively small. It includes a version of A Spinner's Grace by Gerard Dou and Bouquet of Flowers by Jan van Huysum. There is a collection of Old Master drawings, which includes graphic work by Wenceslas Hollar and...