iRoyal Academy of Arts · Piccadilly
The RA Collection
Diploma Works and treasures from the RA Collection spanning over 300 years, shown free in the historic John Madejski Fine Rooms while the main Collections Gallery is expanded. Closed on select dates (21 Jul, 11 Aug, 4 Sep, 2 Oct, 6 Nov, 4 Dec 2026).
Look up in the Council Room and Juno and Jupiter sit on Olympus, seen through an open dome that is only paint. Sebastiano Ricci made that ceiling for Lord Burlington in the 1710s, and the room under it is where the Royal Academy does its business. These Fine Rooms are working rooms, usually shut to the public.
While the RA expands its Collections Gallery, the collection has moved in, much of it Diploma Works, the piece each artist gives on being elected. Still lifes hang in the General Assembly Room, where the Academicians meet, landscapes in the next rooms, 20th-century people and places in the Reynolds Room, a former ballroom. Membership here has always been paid in paintings, and you're walking through the receipts.
A March blog review liked best a corner of portraits by women, including Laura Knight and Ethel Walker. Entry is free, no booking, 11am to 4pm, until 9pm Fridays and Saturdays. It's also closed 6, 7, 18 and 19 November and 4 December.
Look for
Ricci's Olympus ceiling
Look up in the Richard Sharp Council Room for Juno and Jupiter on Olympus, painted so you seem to see them through an open dome.
The General Assembly Room
Still-life paintings fill the former banqueting room where the Royal Academicians now hold their meetings.
The Reynolds Room
Twentieth-century pictures of people and places hang in what was built as a triple-cube ballroom.
The women's portrait corner
Portraits by Ethel Walker, Orovida Pissarro, Laura Knight and Helen Lessore hang together, the part a March visitor review liked most.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Also at Royal Academy of Arts
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Image credits
9
- The RA CollectionCourtesy of Royal Academy of Arts
- RootsCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Sanlé Sory: Colour Years© Sanlé Sory, 2026. Courtesy of Tezeta.
- Snap Happy! How Children Became PhotographersCourtesy of The Photographers' Gallery
- Royal Academy of ArtsYair Haklai / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Photographers' GalleryThe wub / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National GalleryCarlos Delgado / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- National Portrait GalleryIstvánka / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Churchill War RoomsJenny Poole / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0