The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace

The King’s Gallery is open Thursday to Monday throughout the year, except during the installation of new exhibitions.

10:00 – 17:30 (last admission 16:15)

The Gallery is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except from 11 July to 31 August, when it is open 7 days a week.

Gallery Closures​​
Friday, 29 March 2024
15 April – 16 May 2024

The King's Gallery is part of a working royal palace so sometimes closures can happen at short notice.​

The King's Gallery, formerly The Queen's Gallery, is located adjacent to Buckingham Palace on the site of what was once a private chapel for Queen Victoria. The chapel was destroyed in an air raid in 1940, and in 1962, at the suggestion of Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh, it was developed as an art gallery for the Royal Collection.

In 1997, a project began to expand and modernise the gallery, the most significant addition to Buckingham Palace in 150 years. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Queen's Gallery in May 2002 as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, and today, it hosts a programme of changing exhibitions from the Royal Collection.

For centuries, portraiture has played a vital role in shaping the public’s perception of the Royal Family. This exhibition will chart the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, bringing together more than 150 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. 

Discover works from the most celebrated royal photographers, from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Annie Leibovitz and Rankin. Explore some of the close relationships between royal sitters and photographers, seen most clearly through the lens of Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon), who married Princess Margaret in 1960.

The exhibition will shed light on behind-the-scenes processes, from photographers’ handwritten annotations to never-before-seen correspondence with members of the Royal Family and their staff; these materials will reveal the stories behind some of the most celebrated photographs ever taken of the Royal Family.

This exhibition is taking place at The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, formerly known as The Queen’s Gallery.