Dulwich Picture Gallery

Described by the Sunday Telegraph as "the most beautiful small art gallery in the world", this south-of-the-river jewel was the first purpose-built art gallery in England, designed by Sir John Soane in 1811. Mostly put together in the 1790s, the collection of paintings and sketches is also one of the oldest in Great Britain, with Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish and British works by artists such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Van Dyck, Rubens, Tiepolo, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Poussin, Veronese, Canaletto and di Cosimo, among many others. You might consider combining this trip to the 'Deep South' of London with a visit to both lovely, genteel and rather precious Dulwich Village and, not far away in Forest Hill, the Horniman Museum, which houses thousands of historical and anthropological objects.