Work on the gallery is set to finish next summer

Willmott Dixon Interiors has been chosen for the revamp of the National Gallery, with the contractor set to update key areas of the museum’s interior.

The project will see Willmott Dixon’s fit-out arm build the Purcell-designed transformation to the Trafalgar Square gallery, which has more than 5.5 million visitors every year.

Willmott will complete the refurbishment of Room 32, the largest within the National Gallery, as well as refurbishing parts of the existing basement and ground floor areas.

The overhaul at the grade I-listed gallery, which features works from artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet and Van Gogh, is due to wrap by the summer of 2020. 

Willmott Dixon will work to extend the section of the gallery designed by Edmund M Barry, which was completed in 1876.

It is the latest major landmark in London that Willmott Dixon Interiors has worked on, with the firm completing an update to the Grade II-listed Commonwealth Institute building and a new home for the Design Museum in 2016. It also completed work just before Christmas on a revamp of Alexandra Palace in north London.

The company also recently completed new hospitality facilities at Twickenham’s East Stand, which last November.

National Gallery exterior

Source: Willmott Dixon Interiors

The exterior of the Grade-I listed National Gallery designed by William Wilkins in the 1830s.