Turner House Gallery, Penarth

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 9 Dec 2012

Viewed across Plymouth Road. The following details are based on information given on the Ffotogallery at Turner House website. James Pyke Thompson, a wealthy Penarth resident, conceived the idea of building Turner House Gallery, named in homage to the painter, in 1888. Quite the philanthropist, Thompson used the gallery to further one of his social concerns, that the public should be able to view the contents of museums and galleries on the one day, Sunday, when they could be seen by the largest number of people. Turner House thus became known as The Sunday Gallery. Originally the gallery was housed on the first floor of the building with the downstairs area for the custodian's accommodation. The gallery opened in June 1888 with the show consisting of work from Thompson's private collection, which included paintings by J.M.W Turner and Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as some examples of porcelain. Thompson continued to make acquisitions to his collection until his death in 1897. Without his support and enthusiasm however the gallery gradually lost the public's interest and attendance figures dwindled. In 1921 the Trustees decided to hand Turner House and its contents over to the National Museum of Wales. During the Scond World War, Turner House was requisitioned and used by the RAF. When the gallery was derequisitioned in 1944, an Art Subcommittee met to resolve the gallery's future. It was decided that Turner House would exhibit works from the National Museum's reserve collection and temporary exhibitions. Slightly structurally modified, it reopened in 1950, exhibiting shows organised by the National Museum until 2003, when Ffotogallery took over responsibility for programming.

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