Visit our Picture Gallery and Exhibition Space

The Picture Gallery

We welcome visitors to visit our Picture Gallery and Art Collections at our regular Wednesday open days.

Our stunning Grade I listed Picture Gallery houses the Thomas Holloway collection of Victorian paintings.

The Thomas Holloway collection was described by Queen Victoria in 1886 as ‘fine specimens of modern art’. It is a snapshot in time of Victorian taste, and includes world-class paintings by William Powell Frith, John Everett Millais, Edwin Long and Edwin Landseer.

Find out more about visiting the Picture Gallery

Open Stores: the things we keep

Visitors are also invited to visit our Exhibition Space in the Emily Wilding Davison Building. The Exhibition Space is a contemporary gallery space displaying art, research and contemporary practice from within Royal Holloway and beyond. Our current exhibition is Open Stores: The Things We Keep

Welcome to Open Stores, a rare chance to explore what’s usually hidden from view. The Royal Holloway Art and Archive Collections contain thousands of objects, many of which are carefully stored away downstairs and rarely seen. Our stores exist to keep things safe, and to support research and teaching, but they also hold countless stories waiting to be rediscovered.

For this display, we opened the stores and brought them upstairs – sharing a selection of works that aren’t often on public view.

Working with students, volunteers, and colleagues from across the university, we asked: Why do we keep the things we keep? Our choices reflect personal favourites, untold stories, overlooked objects, and what we could physically get out of the stores and onto the walls. Together, they offer a snapshot of the collection and of our community and its history.

The stores aren’t just a physical place. They are a space for thinking, questioning, and rethinking what belongs in a collection. We invite you to consider: what stories do these works tell? Which ones feel familiar and which ones surprise you? What would you add to the collection?

Find out more about visiting our latest exhibition