New Gallery

The New Gallery stands in Regent Street, City of Westminster, on the site of a former fruit market. Built in 1888, the Grade II listed building was designed by Edward Robert Robson in under four months. Its interior features marble-encased cast-iron columns topped with gilded Greek capitals and platinum-leaf decorations. The West and North Galleries once displayed oil paintings, while the first-floor balcony showed smaller works. Sculpture filled the Central Hall, creating a grand space for art. The gallery became a key venue for Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movement artists. Edward Burne-Jones lent three large oils for its opening, and figures like Lawrence Alma-Tadema and William Holman Hunt joined its Consulting Committee. A private view in May 1888 drew former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society held its first showcase here in 1888 under Walter Crane. Later, the gallery hosted a Burne-Jones retrospective and a Tudor portrait exhibition under Queen Victoria’s patronage. After closing as a gallery in 1910, the building became a restaurant, then a cinema in 1913. It screened the UK premiere of *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* in 1938 and housed a Wurlitzer organ. Converted into a church in the 1950s, it remained empty before becoming a Habitat store in 2006. Today, it serves as a Burberry flagship store, preserving its historic interiors.