Three Great Little Galleries

Sure we've got the National Gallery, and you don't have to go too far before you trip over a Tate - but Light My Fire wants to introduce you to some hidden gems. Here's three for starters but we want you Firelighters to tell us where else we can go that's a bit off the beaten track but well worth the detour. We also want decent loos and, ideally, a damn fine restaurant. Have a read, have a great day out and tell us your ideas about great little galleries!


The Lady Lever Gallery, Port Sunlight:

A jewel on the Wirral, easily accessed by Merseyrail from Liverpool, William Hesketh Lever established the gallery to enrich the cultural and educational aspects of the lives of his workforce and the public at large. The Lady Lever Art Gallery was opened in 1922 by Princess Beatrice (youngest daughter of Queen Victoria). It is probably the best surviving example of late Victorian and Edwardian taste and remains the only major public urban gallery built by its founder to house the collection he had assembled for it. It's set in the model village he created for his soap-making and therefore pretty hygienic workforce. The village itself is worth the visit and is eerily reminiscent of an Avengers set.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/


Compton Verney, Northampton:


This gallery doesn't get the major exhibitions so it has to be really inventive about what it puts on to get people in. It's well worth a look. It offers a unique opportunity to view art in the setting of a Grade 1 listed Robert Adam mansion located in 120 acres of spectacular Warwickshire parkland. It houses six permanent collections and has a really fab restaurant - the loos are good too!


http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/?page=home


The John Soanes Museum:

In London (ugh sorry, but you can't ignore the capital) is the lovely John Soanes Museum. Soane, born in 1753, was the son of a bricklayer who became professor of architecture at the Royal Academy and died after a long and distinguished career, in 1837.

Soane designed this house to live in, but also as a setting for his antiquities and his works of art. After the death of his wife (1815), he lived there alone, constantly adding to and rearranging his collections. Having been deeply disappointed by the conduct of his two sons, one of whom survived him, he determined to establish the house as a museum to which 'amateurs and students' should have access.

To visit this wonderfully quirky house in Lincoln's Inn Fields is a total delight. Visit the website, let Stephen Fry give you a guided tour and better still get yourself there to see this tranquil corner of our capital. The loos are okay but there's no cafe.

http://www.soane.org/