It is free, it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10am (until 5pm, or 4pm from 3 November), and there are over a hundred free parking spaces immediately outside. Inside, thirty rooms of paintings and sculpture, Napoleon memorabilia, and one of the most significant collections of Wedgwood jasperware in the UK.
With children it is a looking trip and it works better than that sounds, because the building is grand enough to feel like an event and small enough not to defeat anyone. Thirty rooms is a lot on paper. In practice you drift through the big hall, stop at the sculpture, and let them find the elephant in the Chinese ceramics rooms, where the cases were deliberately set low for smaller visitors. An hour is about right.
Two caveats. The activity rooms are closed at the moment, so there is no drop-in making session to fall back on. And it now shuts on Mondays outside the school holidays, so a bank holiday or half-term Monday is worth checking against the gallery's own page before you set off.
What it costs: Free entry, donations welcome. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm, changing to winter hours of 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Sunday, from 3 November 2026. Closed Mondays except in the school holidays (open Monday 26 October and Mondays 21 and 28 December). Special exhibitions may carry a charge; the May Morris exhibition runs 25 April to 1 November 2026. Free parking for more than 100 cars outside.
Worth knowing: The activity rooms are currently closed, so do not travel for a craft session.
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