Frith Street Gallery — Golden Square
The Frith Street Gallery in Golden Square, London, is a prominent contemporary art gallery famous for representing four consecutive Turner Prize nominees between 1995 and 1998. Founded by Jane Hamlyn in 1989 on Frith Street, the gallery relocated to a purpose-built space on Golden Square in 2007. Located in a historic Soho square dating to the 1670s, the gallery now focuses on female artists and contemporary works.
London · from the walk “Canvas & Cobblestones” · audio ~3 min · Generated
17-18 Golden Square, London W1F 9JJ
- Jane Hamlyn founded the Frith Street Gallery at 60 Frith Street, London, in 1989.
- Between 1995 and 1998, four artists represented by Frith Street Gallery earned consecutive Turner Prize nominations.
- Frith Street Gallery moved to its custom space on London's historic Golden Square in 2007.
- Swiss painter Angelica Kauffmann lived at 16 Golden Square from 1767 to 1781 before co-founding the Royal Academy.
Who founded the Frith Street Gallery in London in 1989?
Take a look around you at Golden Square. This quiet, elegant garden tucked into the heart of Soho has been a haven for artists for over three hundred years... and you're standing right in front of one of its finest chapters.......... Frith Street Gallery was founded in nineteen eighty-nine by Jane Hamlyn, in a Georgian townhouse at sixty Frith Street, just off Soho Square. Jane is the daughter of Paul Hamlyn, the legendary publisher and philanthropist, who built one of Britain's great fortunes through books. But Jane chose a different path... art. She originally set up the gallery as a forum to present the best in contemporary drawing. A modest beginning. But within a decade, something remarkable happened. The gallery produced a Turner Prize nominee for Four consecutive years — Callum Innes in ninety-five, Craigie Horsfield in ninety-six, Cornelia Parker in ninety-seven, and Tacita Dean in ninety-eight. That is an extraordinary run for Any gallery, let alone one operating out of a Soho townhouse.......... In two thousand and seven, the gallery moved to this large, purpose-built space on Golden Square. Today the gallery is known for a focus on female artists and an innovative programme spanning painting, sculpture, film, video, and performance.......... Now here's what makes this location so poetically fitting. Did you know that this very square has been drawing artists since the seventeen hundreds? The celebrated Swiss painter Angelica Kauffmann lived at number sixteen from seventeen sixty-seven to seventeen eighty-one. In seventeen sixty-eight, she became one of Only two female founding members of the Royal Academy in London. She wrote letters from this address to the Academy's president... and it would take over two Hundred years before another woman was elected a full Royal Academician.......... And the square's history runs even deeper. Originally the site of a plague pit, this square was brought into being from the sixteen seventies onwards. Legend has it that the statue in the garden was accidentally won at auction, when the winning bidder raised his hand to greet a friend... the purchase price was so low he simply gave it as a gift to the people of Golden Square.......... And those roses in the flower beds? They were a gift of goodwill from the Bulgarian capital Sofia in nineteen seventy-two.......... So from plague pit to aristocratic address, from foreign embassies to Dickens setting Ralph Nickleby's gloomy house here... Golden Square has constantly reinvented itself. And Frith Street Gallery, with its commitment to daring, boundary-pushing art, fits Right into that tradition. If it's open, step inside. Admission is free... and you never know what extraordinary thing might be on the walls.