London's secret galleries

Discover the London art galleries you never knew existed

The Crypt Gallery – subterranean space

The Crypt Gallery - Photo Rob Greig

Between 1822 and 1854, the crypt beneath St Pancras Church was used to bury departed Londoners, but since 2002 its atmospheric underground arches and alcoves have hosted an ongoing programme of curated contemporary art exhibitions and events, from large-scale sound installations to a group show on the nature of drawing and even an alternative Christmas grotto. If you get the feeling that you’re not alone down there, you’re right – the space still houses the interred remains of its 557 original occupants.

Similar space… Shows by emerging artists in the cavernous Arch 402 (Cremer St, E2 8HD; www.arch402.com).

See more venue information on The Crypt

Auto Italia South East – chop-shop collective

Auto Italia South East - Photo Rob Greig

An old VW garage off the Old Kent Road has been hijacked by young artists as a chop-shop of performance art, lectures, exhibitions and symposia. Alongside irregular but well-attended music and club nights, they even turned the space into a fully fledged independent television station last year. The lively scene of nearby Peckham also revolves around an unlikely hub of galleries, hidden in an industrial estate that includes the Hannah Barry and Son galleries.

See more venue information on Auto Italia South East

Danielle Arnaud – artist's home on display

Danielle Arnaud Gallery - Rob Greig

There’s a venerable tradition of London gallerists showing art chez eux, beginning with East End pioneer Maureen Paley, whose gallery started life in her terraced house in Hackney in 1984. Danielle Arnaud has hosted exhibitions in her Georgian townhouse in Kennington – an area largely unburdened by art-world attention – since the mid-1990s. The chance to wander round elegant, furnished rooms makes looking at art here a more casual affair than the usual white cube experience. The surroundings are so pleasant, mind, that you may not wish to leave.

See more venue information on Danielle Arnaud

Viktor Wynd – curiosity cabinet

Viktor Wynd - Photo Rob Greig

Situated between Vyner Street and the Andrews Road gallery enclave, this Mare Street curiosity shop is both on the art circuit and determinedly off any beaten track. Peek through the windows and you’ll see a world in which velvet-cloaked Victorians, or perhaps The Mighty Boosh, might reside. Entering the shop, which is also the spiritual home of the esoterically minded Last Tuesday Society, reveals a wunderkammer of shells, skulls, taxidermy specimens and assorted oddities. Art gets a designated space in the first-floor gallery but, unsurprisingly, shows tend towards the eerily surreal.

See more venue information on Viktor Wynd

The Old Police Station – from disused to misused

The Old Police Station - Photo Rob Greig

This abandoned cop shop in deepest Deptford provides unique DIY spaces for artists to show and make art, from the original tiled cells (complete with latrines) that are used as intimate galleries, to the shipping containers in the courtyard that house busy studios and a small artist-run exhibition venue called Cartel. The Old Bill’s former mess hall has now become the official watering hole for south London’s new after-hours gallery gatherings on the last Friday of every month (Slam Fridays), because, frankly, what kind of cultured evening would be complete without an overnight spell in the nick?

See more venue information on The Old Police Station

Banner Repeater – platform for art

Banner Repeater Project Space

Located on Platform One of Hackney Downs railway station Banner Repeater must be London's only art venue with a train service that can deliver visitors directly to the gallery door. Founded by Ami Clarke in 2009 this enterprising project space focuses on displays of text-based works and printed materials, alongside an accompanying programme of talks and discussions.

See more venue information on Banner Repeater

Cabinet Gallery – need-to-know only…

Cabinet Gallery - Rob Greig

Cabinet has been a fixture on the scene for 20 years, moving from Brixton and Farringdon to its current spot on Old Street. But, despite being a favourite of heavyweight curators for showing great artists like Enrico David and Mark Leckey, it keeps a low-key public profile. Subscribng on their website is the best way to find out about upcoming exhibitions and events but don't expect to receive much more than an artist's name and a set of dates.

See more venues information on Cabinet Gallery

Large Glass - 'gallop' shop

In hip artworld slang a gallop is defined as a ‘fast-paced gallery and shop space’. Launched in July 2011 Large Glass (named after a Duchamp artwork) certainly fits the bill having already featured curated displays of artworks and artefacts by Franz West, Richard Wentworth, Susan Collis and others, alongside regular talks plus events that combine different artforms with culinary delights such as tastings and themed dinners.

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Comments

By Pascal Ancel Bartholdi - Jun 15 2011

A secret out is the Gallery Space: LO & BEHOLD.
Here is what it has in store this Summer, in its mysterious ways:

The show saved from extinction...

A new show Edge of Extinction, curated by Pascal Ancel Bartholdi.

A wide range of techniques, analogue photography, sculpture, film, video, pictorial manipulation, digital; in genres as diverse as art documentary, portraiture, conceptual, and still life, either challenge or enhance ‘the raison d’ être’ (the justified survival) of the black and white image. How does a black and white perspective change our view of actuality, or beauty? Where does the monochromatic medium fit in our contemporary visual regime? Do we use the Black and White mode of representation to keep a world on the edge of extinction alive? A world we refer to as the past, nostalgia, poetry, beauty and feelings? Can this filter enhance our vision of the world or does it falsify it? From a socio-political view point, can the monochrome foundation of visual comprehension become a metaphor for the unification of cultures and races across the nations? This show focuses on the relationship between contemporary mechanical and digital practice and a mode of seeing that is still regarded as ambiguous, belonging to the past yet ubiquitous to the present. A paradoxical language in a constant state of transformation.

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By Felix - Apr 13 2011

There's a really nice space on the East London/Essex borders called Ajiba Gallery.

They're based on an industrial estate (Raven Road) just near to Charlie Browns roundabout in South Woodford, website http://www.ajiba.org.

Went to their launch party on Saturday and they've got some nice pieces down there from emerging local talent.

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By WOODY QUERCUS - Mar 15 2011

PEACE, LOVE, SOUND AND WORLD VISION

New Video : CALL TO ALL LOVING ARMS

www.reverbnation.com/johnnybonkers

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By At Lewisham ARthouse - Mar 5 2011

Whatever you do or don’t do in March and April, do go to see this show.

CHROMA
Ken Devine
Lewisham ARthouse
Dates: 23 March - 17 April 2011
Private View: Friday 25 March, 6-9pm

"Ken Devine showed the Haphazard Color Machine at Big&Small/Casual Gallery in New York City (www.bigandsmallcasual.net) last April where it was extremely well-received. At the packed preview people watched, for long periods at a time mesmerized by the gorgeous, random color 'events' projected on the floor creating the sensation of looking through a hole in the ice or discovering a mysterious porthole into another universe. It was the most beguiling and satisfying show I have curated to date."
Kate Teale, Director, Big&Small Casual Gallery, New York.

Gallery Open: Wednesdays to Sunday 12 - 6pm Admission Free Disabled Access
Transport: Rail/Underground - New Cross/New Cross Gate Buses - 21, 36, 136, 321 Lewisham Arthouse, 140 Lewisham Way, London SE14 6PD Registered Charity No: 28058R.

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By Victoria - Feb 28 2011

Another inspired alternative gallery concept is Zero10 (www.zero10gallery.com) - they ran four consecutive exhibitions from the owner's large Victorian flat in North London last year and are about to launch a new show in Soho, preview is on Tuesday 1st March (6-9) - Cadavre Exquis

Zero 10 @ the assembly rooms
8 Silver Place, London W1

Showing works from Gordon Cheung, Piers Secunda, Nikola Savic & Adam Ball.....well worth checking out.

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By Pronomena Black - Feb 26 2011

There was a secretly located gallery in a church cottage home which got served a demolition notice. It has relocated to the East London village of Victoria Park where it's full steam ahead with a solid agenda of dynamic exhibitions and the addition of a secret hotel suite!

THE RESIDENCE GALLERY
229 Victoria Park Road
London
E9 7HD

http://www.residence-gallery.com

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By Corinne Mynatt - Feb 25 2011

Another gem is James Taylor Gallery, an old 10,000 sq ft Victorian warehouse that houses an incredible and diverse programme of exhibitions, sometimes using the incredible architecture.

Visit to see what's on before going:
http://jtg.org.uk/about/

James Taylor Gallery,
Collent St (off Well St)
Hackney
E9

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By Rosa Sub - Feb 24 2011

The Cabinet is a figment in the mind of heavyweight curators. An ideal, unrealizable space they go to when the trudge of the east end has mentally defeated them

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By Pascal Ancel Bartholdi - Feb 23 2011

an important upcoming venue should feature in this list of alternative spaces. I am therefor updating the list in my comment:

Self Esteem Salon
Regent Studios, 3rd Floor , Self Esteem Salon, 8 Andrews Road London, E8

Area England – London
Artform Visual arts/Fashion

The Self Esteem Salon (formerly Hackney Stables)is a sister company of the fashion label Conchita Perez and started trading in April 2010. It is operating as a platform for local and international artists in a setting where the art salons of the 19th Century is allied to the urban atmosphere of sub-culture:
To the viewer bored with the sacrosanctity of the white cube, to the artist looking for a way out of the bitten track, to the writer searching for substance with no strings attached, and to the curator brave enough to get under the shiny surface of cultural apathy, this space is a foot in the door separating international trivia from universal creativity. Located on the third floor of a warehouse, one area leads us to the 19 century salon while the other invites us into the 21st century gallery. You might encounter a fashion crowd as easily as a lone sculptor battling with materials, and while gazing at the art, order an espresso. The Self Esteem Salon creators Phil Mac Cormack and Conchita Perez have done away with etiquette, pretense, tin gods and useless concepts. We are invited to handle the raw and the grit, to discuss with the curator and the maker. This spot in time and space inspires one to participate in trampling over antiquated ideas of taste and offers a possible solution to a pervasive inertia of the arts.
The next show is multi/photo media “Edge of Extinction” in July.

website: http://www.selfesteemsalon.co.uk/