Editing National Gallery (section)

===William Wilkins's building===
{{Infobox historic site
| name = 
| image = William Wilkins's building.JPG
| image_size = 250px
| caption = The Wilkins Building, with the church of [[St&nbsp;Martin-in-the-Fields]] to the right
| built = 1832–1838
| architect = William Wilkins
| architecture = [[Neoclassical architecture|Neoclassical]]
| designation1 = Grade I
| designation1_offname = National Gallery
| designation1_date = 5 February 1970
| designation1_number = 1066236<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1066236|desc=National Gallery|access-date= 11 November 2013}}</ref>
}}

The first suggestion for a National Gallery on Trafalgar Square came from [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash]], who envisaged it on the site of the [[Royal Mews#At Charing Cross|King's Mews]], while a [[Parthenon]]-like building for the [[Royal Academy]] would occupy the centre of the square.{{sfn|Liscombe|1980|pp=180–182}} Economic recession prevented this scheme from being built, but a competition for the Mews site was eventually held in 1831, for which Nash submitted a design with [[Charles Robert Cockerell]] as his co-architect. Nash's popularity was waning by this time, however, and the commission was awarded to [[William Wilkins (architect)|William Wilkins]], who was involved in the selection of the site and submitted some drawings at the last moment.{{sfn|Summerson|1962|pp=208–209}} Wilkins had hoped to build a "Temple of the Arts, nurturing contemporary art through historical example",<ref>''Grove Dictionary of Art'', Vol. 33, p. 192.</ref> but the commission was blighted by parsimony and compromise, and the resulting building, which opened to the public on 9 April 1838,{{sfn|Smith|2009|p=49}} was deemed a failure on almost all counts.

The site only allowed for the building to be one room deep, as a workhouse and a barracks lay immediately behind.{{NoteTag|St Martin's Workhouse (to the east) was cleared for the construction of E. M. Barry's extension, whereas [[St George's Barracks, London|St George's Barracks]] stayed until 1911, supposedly because of the need for troops to be at hand to quell disturbances in Trafalgar Square. ({{Harvnb|Conlin|2006|p=401}}) Wilkins had hoped for more land to the south, but was denied it as building there would have obscured the view of [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]].}} To exacerbate matters, there was a public right of way through the site to these buildings, which accounts for the access porticoes on the eastern and western sides of the façade. These had to incorporate columns from the demolished [[Carlton House, London|Carlton House]], and their relative shortness resulted in an elevation that was deemed excessively low, thus failing to provide Trafalgar Square with its desired commanding focal point to the north. Also recycled are the sculptures on the façade, originally intended for Nash's [[Marble Arch]] but abandoned due to his financial problems.{{NoteTag|They are as follows: above the main entrance, a blank roundel (originally to feature the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]]'s face) flanked by two female figures (personifications of Europe and Asia/India, sites of his campaigns) and high up on the eastern façade, [[Minerva]] by [[John Flaxman]], originally [[Britannia]].}} The eastern half of the building housed the Royal Academy until 1868, which further diminished the space afforded to the National Gallery.

The building was the object of public ridicule before it had even been completed, as a version of the design had been leaked to ''[[The Literary Gazette]]'' in 1833.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=60}} Two years before completion, its infamous "pepperpot" elevation appeared on the frontispiece of ''Contrasts'' (1836), an influential tract by the [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothicist]] [[Augustus Pugin]], as an example of the degeneracy of the classical style.{{sfn|Conlin|2006|p=367}} Even [[William IV]] (in his last recorded utterance) thought the building a "nasty little pokey hole",{{sfn|Smith|2009|p=50}} while [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] called it "a little gin shop of a building".{{sfn|Smith|2009|p=50}} The twentieth-century architectural historian Sir [[John Summerson]] echoed these early criticisms when he compared the arrangement of a [[dome]] and two diminutive [[Turret (architecture)|turret]]s on the roofline to "the clock and vases on a mantelpiece, only less useful".{{sfn|Summerson|1962|pp=208–209}}{{NoteTag|Summerson's "mantelpiece" comparison inspired the title of Conlin's 2006 history of the National Gallery, ''The Nation's Mantelpiece'' (op. cit.).}} Sir [[Charles Barry]]'s landscaping of Trafalgar Square, from 1840, included a north terrace so that the building would appear to be raised, thus addressing one of the points of complaint.<ref name="Survey" /> Opinion on the building had mellowed considerably by 1984, when [[Charles III|Prince Charles]] called the Wilkins façade a "much-loved and elegant friend", in contrast to a proposed extension. (''[[#Sainsbury Wing and later additions|See below]]'')

<gallery mode="packed" heights="175">
National Gallery London 2013 March.jpg|The elevation onto Trafalgar Square in 2013
National Gallery1836.jpg|The ''[[piano nobile]]'' and ground floor of Wilkins's building, before expansion. Note the passageways behind the east and west porticoes. Areas shaded in pink were used by the Royal Academy until 1868.
National Gallery 1st floor plan.svg|Plan of the first floor of the National Gallery in 2013
</gallery>