Hartlepool Art Gallery

Hartlepool Art Gallery stands in Church Square, inside a restored Victorian church designed by Edward Buckton Lamb. The church was built in 1854 and still has a 100-foot tower with six bells that can be rung. It sits beside the town centre and Hartlepool railway station, sharing space with a tourist information centre. The gallery opened in 1996 and is run by Hartlepool Borough Council. The gallery holds around 1,500 works including oil paintings, watercolours, prints and sculpture. Its permanent collection features artists such as Lucian Freud, John Wilson McCracken, Frank Henry Mason, Alice Nicholson and Basil Beattie. Watercolours and drawings include works by Myles Birket Foster, Stanley Spencer and L. S. Lowry. In 1972 the gallery presented the first exhibition of Lucian Freud outside London, arranged by local artist John Wilson McCracken. Visitors find temporary exhibitions of crafts, contemporary art, fine art and photography alongside the permanent collection. The building’s Victorian architecture and tower bells add to the setting. The gallery’s programme reflects local and national art, offering changing displays in a space that once served as a church.