National Gallery

What is actually on the walls

The collection runs from early Italian gold-ground altarpieces through the Renaissance, the Dutch golden age, Spanish and French painting, and into the Impressionists and post-Impressionists. The names people come for are all here: Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Velazquez's Rokeby Venus, Turner's Fighting Temeraire, a Vermeer or two, Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, Constable's Hay Wain. It is a greatest-hits collection in the best sense.

Unlike a sprawling encyclopedic museum, this is paintings only, and that focus is a strength: you are not pulled between sculpture wings and antiquities. The flip side is that the rooms holding the marquee works (the Impressionists, the Sunflowers) get crowded, so you sometimes view them over shoulders. Arrive early or late and those same rooms can be almost quiet.

Free entry, ticketed shows

The main collection is free and you can walk in, though the gallery recommends booking a free timed slot online to skip any queue at the door on busy days. The big temporary exhibitions are paid and ticketed, and the popular ones sell out their good slots, so book those ahead if there is a show you want.

Because it is free, you do not have to treat it as an all-day commitment. Some of the best visits are short and targeted: come in for thirty minutes, see five paintings you love, and leave. The gallery's own one-hour and highlights routes, printable from their site or in the app, are a good way to do exactly that without getting lost.

The Sainsbury Wing and the building

The main entrance is now the Sainsbury Wing, the lower modern extension at the western corner facing the square; it reopened after a refurbishment and is where the early Renaissance pictures hang. The older main building behind it is a grander, more confusing warren of top-lit rooms, and it is easy to lose your bearings between the two.

Pick up a map or use the app, because the room numbering does not always flow the way you expect, and the painting you are hunting for can be one wing over. There are cafes and a restaurant inside if you want to break up the visit, and the central Trafalgar Square location means you are steps from a lot else when you are done.

When to go and what is around

It is open late on Fridays, which is the move if you want the famous rooms with breathing space and a quieter, more grown-up feel after the daytime crowds and school groups thin out. Mornings right at opening are also good. Midday, especially in summer and on weekends, is the crush.

You are on Trafalgar Square, so the National Portrait Gallery is right next door, the West End and Covent Garden are a short walk east, and St James's Park and Whitehall are just south. It slots neatly into a central London day rather than demanding one of its own.