Two Temple Place

Name: Two Temple Place
Address: 2 Temple Place, London, WC2R3BD, GB
Telephone: +442078363715
Price range: $$
Rating: 4.3

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Two Temple Place

Spectacular Neo-Gothic mansion on London's Embankment. Available for private hire and hosts annual, Two Temple Place is part of The Bulldog Trust.
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Two Temple Place is one of London's hidden architectural gems; an extraordinary late-Victorian mansion built for William Waldorf Astor in 1895. Our winter exhibition programme showcases publicly-owned museum and art gallery collections from outside London. Exhibitions run between January and April each year and are free! Our beautiful building is available for private hire and hosts a wide array o

f spectacular bespoke events, including dinners, drinks receptions, weddings and parties. Registered charity number 1123081.

09/02/2025

For our third we’re featuring Fruitbat Textiles!

Fruitbat Textiles is run by Charlotte who works with hand-dyed and handwoven British wool to create pieces inspired by the beautiful South West countryside.

Charlotte has always been drawn to the textures, colours and charm of traditional crafts, particularly admiring the level of skill they require. She is passionate about create high quality pieces that bring warmth and joy to everyday life.

Charlotte celebrates the heritage of British wool and weaving through using traditional techniques. She dyes the wool by hand before using one of her three looms to weave the fabric, making sure no two pieces are ever the same.

We currently have a range of beautiful Fruitbat Textiles scrunchies in stock, each made using British wool and infused with Charlotte’s care, patience and joy.

Our exhibition shop is open Tues-Sun alongside ‘Lives Less Ordinary’. Check our ‘Visit Us’ page on our website to see our full opening hours.

See more of Fruitbat Textiles’ work here

06/02/2025

Did you know that ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen’ is available to buy in our Exhibition Shop?

The catalogue contains an in conversation with Mark Leckey & Rene Matić, essays by Lives Less Ordinary curator Samantha Manton and independent curator and researcher Beth Hughes, and a full list of the exhibition objects.

The catalogue is just £8.50!

The exhibition and shop are open Tuesday - Sunday from 11am - 6pm (9pm on Wednesdays and 4:30pm on Sundays).

02/02/2025

We’re back with another this week featuring Block Design!

Block Design was founded in 2000 by Tara Ashe shortly after she graduated. She was keen to combine her passion for design with her engineering background to create a range of functional and beautiful lifestyle products.

We love these colourful and joyful games from Block available in our shop during our 2025 exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen’.

We also think their photo clips are a brilliant way to display our selection of postcards!

See more of Block’s products

(Postcard shows Connor Coulston, HIDE!, 2022, Glazed ceramic neon©️The Artist. Collection of James McLaren & Lawton F**t)

31/01/2025

As with each of our exhibitions, Lives Less Ordinary is accompanied by a free schools programme for State Primary Schools from around London.

Young people in years 5 & 6 are taken on a tour of the exhibition and work on a couple of creative activities.

As part of the workshops, students asked to answer a number of questions, including ‘What makes someone an artist?’

Swipe to see a handful of their insightful answers ➡️

29/01/2025

Alongside the exhibition and as part of all our work at Two Temple Place, we invite in Community groups for building tours, yea and coffee mornings and creative workshops.

On Monday, one of our brilliant facilitators, Fatima, led a group on a collage portrait workshop inspired by both the incredible work in the exhibition and the heads of characters from history and literature in our Great Hall!!

If you work with a charity or community group, do get in touch at [email protected]

29/01/2025

The first few days of the exhibition have been remarkable, with some powerful comments from visitors:

‘Fabulous + wonderful. The first time I have been to an exhibition that I was able to relate to.. I feel emotionally moved.’

‘I loved this exhibition. It moved me and I will return to spend more time to give each exhibit more time & consideration. It was both challenging & beautiful.’

‘The exhibition has made me laugh and cry, it was wonderful and I am from a working class background’

Thank you to almost who have visited so far. We look forward to continuing to welcome visitors over the next few months to Lives Less Ordinary, open until 20 April.

26/01/2025

We’re so excited that ‘s are back!

Each Sunday during we’ll be sharing one of our amazing stockists, independent makers or artists that you will find in our Exhibition Shop this year. We carefully curate our shop stock every year to reflect the themes of the exhibition and this year is no exception!

Today we’re putting the spotlight on the wonderful Devon Osborne.

Dev is an amazing artist based in North London who works in a variety of media from oil to watercolour to gold-leaf signwriting. Their work is playful and draws from the unsung moments of everyday life.

Dev grew up near Ashford, Kent, where she went to school. Her father was an HGV driver, her mother worked in a care home, and Devon was the first from her family to go on to further education. She gained a BA in Graphic Communication Design in 2017 from Central School of St Martins, University of the Arts London.

Her first solo show ‘Oh, Go On Then!’ looked closely at pub culture and she is currently planning her second solo show on theme of gambling.

Thank you so much to Dev for working with us this year – we love how much brightness, humour and joy your pieces bring to our shop.

All pieces featured are currently available at Two Temple Place!

Find more of Dev’s work on their Instagram

21/01/2025

Fight the January blues with Two Temple Place!

‘Lives Less Ordinary’ opens on Saturday! While you wait, here are some hints of blue found around the building throughout the installation process.

We hope you enjoy this behind the scenes look! We can’t wait to welcome you back!

‘Lives Less Ordinary’ opens from 25 January - 20 April. Admission is free, no booking required.

20/01/2025

Roro’s Conscious Coffee is returning to run our exhibition cafe! Roro's is a small, family owned and socially responsible business, and we're thrilled to be working with them again.

The cafe will be open from 25th January - 20 April 2025, Tuesday - Sunday (11am - 4pm) selling selection of hot & cold drinks, cakes, pastries and snacks.

We are very excited to have back with us! Find out more about ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ and plan your visit to the exhibition and the cafe on the Visit Us page of our website, linked in our bio.

19/01/2025

Check out our incredible flyers for ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen’!

Clockwise from top right these flyers feature work by Conor Coulston, Rene Matić, Jasleen Kaur, and Joan Eardley.

Many thanks to our designer for putting these together!

‘Lives Less Ordinary’ opens Saturday, 25 January. Admission is free is there is no booking required. Come visit us, pick up a flyer, and see these beautiful works for yourself then!

Image Credits:
Connor Coulston, ‘I NEED TO SPICE UP MY LIFE,’ Connor Coulston, 2022, Glazed ceramic, neon © The Artist. Photography by Denisa Ilie

Rene Matić, ‘Paul and Zac in the Garden,’ Peterborough, 2022, Inkjet print © The Artist

Jasleen Kaur, ‘He Walked Like He Owned Himself,’ 2018 © The Artist. Image credit: Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service

Joan Eardley, ‘Farmhouse Stove,’ c. 1950, © Estate of Joan Eardley. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2024

18/01/2025

Have you seen our restored floor?

We wanted to share this fabulous timelapse made by showing the incredible work they did over the summer restoring the floor in our Great Hall. This was a massive project, and Weldon Flooring did an exceptional job bringing the floor back to life.

If you want to come by and see the floor, it's a great time of the year to do so! We will be open for our new exhibition 'Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen' from 25 January - 20 April 2025.

Opening times can be find on our website or at the link in our bio. We look forward to seeing you!

15/01/2025

It’s and the installation for ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ is in full swing!

Here’s some of our team, enjoying the walls that have been beautifully constructed by over the past week.

We can’t wait to welcome you to Two Temple Place next weekend! ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-Seen’ opens at 11:09am on Saturday 25 January. See you then!

12/01/2025

Yesterday we welcomed in our new and returning volunteers for training in advance of our exhibition opening later this month on the 25th Janaury.

Thank you all who attended! It was brilliant seeing you all and welcoming individuals we know well and those we are looking forward to getting to know over the next 4 months and beyond!

Our volunteers are essential to our work at Two Temple Place! Their supports enables us to open to the public and they support our audiences visits! Volunteers work with us welcoming visitors, sharing the story of the building and on our comminuted research of its history - thank you all!

We hope you agree - Two Temple Place isn’t a bad place to spend your Saturday!

09/01/2025

Exciting developments at TTP!! We’re delighted to have working in our space on the build of our next exhibition which opens on the 25 January!

Posted • End of day three and things are coming together nicely with the build. We just can’t wait to get some colour on these exhibition walls....

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! 🎉🎉🎉

We're excited to welcome you back into the building for 'Lives Less Ordinary' in just a few weeks. Here's to 2025!

Photography by Kate Peters.

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas from the Team at Two Temple Place!!🎄✨

We hope you have a lovely festive season, and your days are filled with light.

Many thanks again to for our lovely Christmas tree!

23/12/2024

Tag yourself! Which Arthurian Woman are you?

These gilded panels, made by Sir George Frampton, depict nine women whose lives were intertwined with the legendary King Arthur of Britain. Each one has such a distinctive personality - who are you?

21/12/2024

Today is the , the shortest day of the year.

This day has long held cultural significance across the world. It has been a day of rites, festivals, and feasting. Even today, when the sun does not have as direct an impact on our daily lives, it continues to mark a turning point in the year where days became longer and brighter.

There is evidence of the Winter Solstice being treated as an important part of the annual cycle for some cultures as far back as 12,000 years ago. Before the modern period, astronomical events such as the solstice guided farming activities and everyday life. Ancient monuments across the world (such as Stonehenge) have features that align with sunrise or sunset on the winter solstice.

This close up from the Sunrise Window in the Great Hall shows the weak London winter sun coming through. Both Sunrise and Sunset windows depict large landscapes. Designed by Clayton and Bell, they are so intricate that there is always a new detail to find. This glass feels like an English winter: cold but bright, with spots of light coming through,

Address

2 Temple Place
London
WC2R3BD

Telephone

+442078363715

Website

https://twotempleplace.org/

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Videos

WEDNESDAY LATES - LIVE MUSIC Our Wednesday Lates - Live Music evenings are back! Join us this Wednesday evening, 5 February from 6pm - 9pm (Music from 6.30-8.30 including breaks) for live music with Moussa Dembele alongside our new exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen’. Musician Moussa Dembele comes from generations of traditional Bwa Bwa Griot musicians from Burkina Faso and Mali who have been making and playing musical instruments for generations. He was trained by his father and various family members from a young age and has gone on to become a professional musician and teacher as well as a master craftsman of West African instruments. In addition to the Balafon, he also plays the Kora and Ngoni and percussion including Djembe, Doum Doum and Talking Drum. This event is part of our series of Wednesday Late Music Evenings presented by musician and producer Camelle Hinds. Our shop and bar will also be open throughout the evening! FREE entry, no booking required. #LivesLessOrdinary #LiveMusic #TwoTemplePlace #WestAfricanMusic #WestAfricanInstruments #LondonEvents #LondonExhibitions #FreeEventsInLondon #MoussaDembele

Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen, open for free at #twotempleplace until 20 April, features artwork from over 60 artists. It showcases work loaned directly from artists, from artists estates and archives and from collections all around the UK. Lives Less Ordinary brings together ceramics, film, painting, photography and sculpture to explore a nuanced and authentic reflection of working-class life and experience. Challenging long-standing inequities and misrepresentation, this exhibition presents compelling assertions of pride, tenderness, resilience, humour and hopefulness, and moments of play, joy and rest. Conceived and curated by Samantha Manton, the exhibition is produced by Two Temple Place and supported by @museumasmuck @workingclassbritish @workingclasscreativesdatabase & @workingartsclub Admission is FREE! Open Tuesday - Sunday! Until 20 April. We look forward to welcoming you! #liveslessordinary #workingclassbritainreseen #workingclass #londonexhibition

WE ARE OPEN ‘Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen’ is now open and continues until 20 April 2025 Admission is FREE. We look forward to welcoming you! Opening times: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 11am - 6pm Wednesday: 11am - 9pm Sunday: 11am - 4.30pm Monday: CLOSED To find out more head to the Visit Us page of our website, link in bio. #TwoTemplePlace #LivesLessOrdinary #NewExhibition #FreeExhibition #LondonExhibitions #VisitLondon #ThingsToDoInLondon

We’re putting our shop together! Get a glimpse of some of the lovely items we’ll have in our gift shop throughout ‘Lives Less Ordinary!’ We’ve been having fun unpacking stock deliveries, and can’t wait for you to see what we have for you! We have such a wide range of stockists, artists, and independent makers involved in our shop this year, lots of whom we discovered through our shop callout in late 2024, where we were looking for people who consider themselves working-class or from a working class background. We’re so excited to be working with them all, and can’t wait for you to see their AMAZING pieces! We’ll be featuring some of the makers we are stocking in the shop throughout the exhibition in our #ShopSundays posts! ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ runs from 25 January - 20 April. Admission is free, and booking is not required. #TwoTemplePlace #LivesLessOrdinary #GiftShop #ExhibitionShop #FreeExhibition #FreeThingsToDoInLondon

Have you seen our restored floor? We wanted to share this fabulous timelapse made by @weldonflooring showing the incredible work they did over the summer restoring the floor in our Great Hall. This was a massive project, and Weldon Flooring did an exceptional job bringing the floor back to life. If you want to come by and see the floor, it's a great time of the year to do so! We will be open for our new exhibition 'Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen' from 25 January - 20 April 2025. Opening times can be find on our website or at the link in our bio. We look forward to seeing you! #TwoTemplePlace #Conservation #FloorRestoration #LivesLessOrdinary #WoodConservation #Timelapse #ConservationTimelapse #HistoricLondon #LondonExhibition #FreeExhibition

We’re very excited to be a Cultural Partner of Artslink Westminster! @citywestminster Artslink is a hub for schools to use to find activities and free learning resources, all created by local institutions. Through the Artslink site you can access all of Two Temple Place’s free teacher resource packs and activities designed to accompany and reflect each of our exhibitions. You’ll also find more information about planning a school visit to our annual exhibition. Visits to ‘Lives Less Ordinary’ are booking fast so make sure you get in touch with us if you want to bring your year 5/6’s to us in 2025! Rebecca, our Head of Culture & Community recently attended the Artslink site launch and was able to connect with all of the other wonderful organisations partnered with Artslink. Head to the site to find our teacher packs and many more amazing resources from local Westminster organisations!

Our next exhibition is coming soon!! Opening on the 25 January 2025, Lives Less Ordinary explores the overlooked richness and diversity of working-class life and creative expression from the 1950s to now. Challenging long-standing inequities and misrepresentation, this exhibition will offer nuanced and authentic reflections of working-class life from artists from working-class backgrounds who have used their creativity to reflect wide-ranging experiences and identities, depicting and defining their culture and communities in their own terms. Drawing work together from important public collections, archives and contemporary artists from around the UK, Lives Less Ordinary will present complexity and humour, compelling assertions of pride, hopefulness and resilience, and moments of play, joy and rest. Lives Less Ordinary: Working-Class Britain Re-seen will be open 25 January - 20 April 2025. More info coming soon! #liveslessordinary #twotempleplace #exhibitionlondon #workingclasslife

Catalogue has been printed! The Glass Heart: Art, Industry & Collaboration opens on Saturday 27 January at 11am.! We look forward to seeing you! Thanks for the excellent design @na_creative_london #theglassheart #twotempleplace