New Gallery

The New Gallery is a Crown Estate-owned Grade II Listed building at 121 Regent Street in the City of Westminster, London. Opened in 1888 as a fine art gallery, it operated as an important exhibition venue for Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movement artists until 1910. The building subsequently served as a restaurant, cinema, Seventh-day Adventist church, and furniture store before becoming, in September 2012, a flagship retail store for Burberry. Its successive adaptations reflect the evolving cultural and commercial life of London's West End over more than a century.

The New Gallery was founded in 1888 by J. Comyns Carr and Charles Edward Hallé, who had resigned as co-directors of Sir Coutts Lindsay's Grosvenor Gallery in 1887 following troubles at that institution. The building was designed by Edward Robert Robson FSA and constructed in little more than three months to ensure a summer 1888 opening. The private view of the first exhibition took place on Tuesday, 8 May 1888, with the public opening on Wednesday, 9 May, for a three-month run. Former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone was among the early arrivals at the private view, which was a considerable social success. Carr continued as co-director until 1908. The gallery's final art exhibition, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1910, marked the end of its period as a gallery. In 1910 the interior was converted into The New Gallery Restaurant, but this proved unsuccessful, and in January 1913 the space was reconverted into The New Gallery Cinema. The cinema received enlargement and modifications in 1925, including the installation of a Wurlitzer organ. After World War II the cinema struggled, partly because of its slightly off-West End location, and Gaumont British Theatres sold the lease to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1953. The building served as a church until 1992, then remained empty for more than ten years. It became a Habitat furniture store in 2006, but Habitat surrendered the lease in March 2011. The building was designated Grade II Listed status in 1992. Since September 2012 it has operated as a Burberry flagship store.

During its years as an art gallery from 1888 to 1910, the New Gallery continued the ideals of the Grosvenor Gallery and functioned as a significant venue for Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movement artists. The ground-floor West and North Galleries were devoted to oil paintings, while the first-floor balcony around the Central Hall displayed smaller works in oils, watercolours, etchings, and drawings. Sculpture was exhibited in the Central Hall itself. The gallery also played a notable role in the Arts and Crafts Movement. In October and November 1888, it hosted the first showcase of industrial and applied arts by the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society under the direction of its founding president, Walter Crane. This was the first attempt to show contemporary decorative arts in London since the Grosvenor Gallery's Winter Exhibition of 1881, and the Society's annual (later triennial) exhibitions at the New Gallery became important events in the Arts and Crafts Movement at the end of the nineteenth century.

Edward Burne-Jones, then at the height of his popularity, supported the New Gallery from its inception, serving on its Consulting Committee and lending three large oils for the opening exhibition, a move that ensured its financial success. Lawrence Alma-Tadema and William Holman Hunt also joined the Consulting Committee, while George Frederic Watts and Lord Leighton transferred their loyalty from the Grosvenor Gallery to the New Gallery. In 1890, the gallery held an important exhibition of Tudor portraits and relics under the auspices of Queen Victoria. The New Gallery was the setting for a major Burne-Jones retrospective in 1892-93 and a memorial exhibition of his works in 1898. In 1893 the gallery exhibited four panels by Masaccio, later attributed to the Pisa Polyptych, now in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. During its cinema period, the venue was the location of the UK showing of the first full-length animated cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1938, followed by Bambi in 1942.

The New Gallery occupies 121 Regent Street in London's West End. The building was constructed on the site of an old fruit market. Existing cast-iron columns supporting the roof were encased with marble to create the impression of massive marble shafts topped with gilded Greek capitals. The architrave, frieze, and cornices above the columns were covered with platinum leaf. The rapid construction, completed in just over three months, was designed to meet the deadline for a summer 1888 opening. When the space was converted to a cinema in 1913, and particularly during modifications in 1925, the Wurlitzer organ was installed. The organ remained in place during the building's later uses and was restored to its original condition during the Habitat period. The building's Grade II Listing in 1992 recognised its architectural and historical significance.

The New Gallery is located at 121 Regent Street in the City of Westminster, London, within the Crown Estate. The building is owned by the Crown Estate and has held Grade II Listed status since 1992. It is not currently open to the public as a cultural venue; since September 2012 it has functioned as a flagship retail store for Burberry, following the departure of Habitat in March 2011. The building's earlier incarnations as an art gallery, cinema, and church are no longer active, though they form part of the documented heritage of this West End site.