As the largest and arguably most important city in the United Kingdom, London is a natural choice for school trips to study the fine arts. Founded by the Romans over two thousand years ago, the city, located on the River Thames in the southwestern part of England, has been a cultural hub ever since.

While there is certainly no shortage of museums and galleries to visit while in the city, there are a few that should not be missed on your visit. Be sure to spend an afternoon at the National Gallery and its neighbour the National Portrait Gallery; head south of the river to the Tate Modern; and finish up your time in the city by moving from one Tate gallery to another, this time to see the works on display at the Tate Britain.

National Gallery — Founded in 1824, this large gallery, located in the heart of London in Trafalgar Square, is a must-see on all school trips to London. With a collection of over 2,400 Western European paintings, dating from the 13th to the 19th centuries, you should plan to spend several hours exploring the museum’s most well known works. These include Titian’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, Rembrandt’s ‘Self Portrait at Age 34’, and ‘Venus and Mars’ by Botticelli just to mention a few.

If you find yourself with some spare time after the National Gallery, then head next door to the National Portrait Gallery. A tour of the National Portrait Gallery will take you through the history of a host of important British portraits. When it was officially founded in 1856, it was the first portrait gallery in the world, and with its current holding of over 11,000 portraits, it is one of the largest collections of portraitures in the world.

Tate Modern — Located just south of the River Thames between the Southwark and Blackfriars bridges, the Tate Modern stands out visually, as it is housed in the original Bankside Power Station. School trips to the gallery will take students through the large, industrial looking entrance and directly into the current exhibition space, known as Turbine Hall. Here you will come across the ever-changing temporary exhibitions – often unusual and always thought provoking. One such artwork was ‘Shibboleth’, a large crack in the floor of the gallery, created by Columbian artist Doris Salcedo. The rest of the collection throughout the gallery represents all the major movements from Fauvism onwards. Tate Modern is one of the most visited museums in the entire world and well worth an inclusion on art-based school trips.

Tate Britain — As part of the successful and important grouping of Tate museums, the Tate Britain is another that you must not miss on your school trips to the city. Housed just north of the river near Vauxhaul, on Millbank in the original Millbank Prison, the gallery was opened in 1897 as the Tate Gallery. As the National Gallery of British Art, the collection is comprised of an array of works by British artists from 1500 to the present. These include works by J.M.W. Turner, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Blake, and Francis Bacon.

Adrianna Goldstiver works for Equity School Travel, experts in creating educational visits for schools and colleges. We organise school trips worldwide, as well trips for many other curriculum subjects. Our school trips include destinations in the UK, Europe, Asia, North America and Africa.

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