London Attractions Unfamiliar Attractions Tate BritainTate Britain - Wallace Collection - Wigmore Hall - £
Formerly the plain old Tate, Tate Britain rivals the National Gallery for prestige art on a grand scale. Housed at Millbank, overlooking the Thames, an unusual neighbourhood in that it's so easy to miss, despite being on the periphery of the major tourist zones at Westminster and Victoria. 
What separates Tate Britain significantly from the National is that the focus here is on British Art. From 1500 to the present day, including Turner Prize candidates (but don't let that put you off). Stubbs, Gainsborough, Turner, Blake, Constable and Reynolds are represented as well as significant artists from the nineteenth century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Rossetti and Millais. If you're a fan of this period and many are - take a look at the Guildhall Gallery (free on Fridays) in the City of London - as a few select and rare pieces are on display there too.
Head north, via the Tube (Victoria Line) to Oxford Circus and walk towards Manchester Square.
The Wallace Collection is situated in Hertford House, Manchester Square, a few hundred yards away from the hectic bustle of Oxford Street. It displays a world-renowned range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries, arranged within 25 galleries. Curiously overlooked by many visitors, possibly because it's so rarely flagged for attention. Friendly and approachable staff greet you warmly at the entrance and you are rarely afforded such close contact with masterpieces. Well worth taking the time to investigate, its intimacy could well propel it into your own personal-favourites list.
The collection was bequeathed to Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890) - 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870). It was then passed to the nation, after he died, by his widow. The Wallace Collection museum opened to the public in 1900 in Hertford House, Manchester Square, where it remains. A condition of the bequest was that no object ever leave the collection, even for loan exhibitions. Meaning, the only possibility of seeing these globally important works, is to visit.
The Wallace Collection numbers nearly 5,500 objects and is best known for its quality and breadth of eighteenth-century French paintings, Sèvres porcelain and French furniture.
The Wallace Collection also displays many other treasures, such as two paintings by Titian, four Rembrandts, three Rubenses, four Van Dycks, twenty-two Canalettos, nineteen Bouchers, masterpieces by Hooch, nine Teniers, Frans Hals, nine Murillos, two Velázquezes and paintings by Domenichino, Cima, Daddi, Reni, Rosa, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Antoine Watteau, Nicholas Lancret, Jan Steen, Aelbert Cuyp and nine Guardis.
A few hundred metres from Manchester Square along Wigmore Street is the Wigmore Hall - the essential platform for the world's most sought-after 
soloists and chamber musicians. It hosts over 400 events in a season, selling some 165,000 tickets each year in the process.
Every week a concert is broadcast worldwide on radio and the internet through BBC Radio 3. The Wigmore Hall also launched its own recording label, Wigmore Hall Live, in 2005 with a growing number of releases available for sale in retail outlets worldwide.
Renowned for having some of the finest acoustics anywhere, numerous live recordings are made here. It has many devoted fans, but is often missed, due to its location in the quieter locale, north of Oxford Street. Pavement traffic thins to a trickle once you cross the great shopping Sargasso.
Built in the Renaissance style using alabaster and marble, the venue has attracted many notables including Camille Saint-Saëns, Percy Grainger, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sergey Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG.
Pimlico or Vauxhall Tube.
Call: 020 7887 8888
The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN.
Bond Street or Baker Street Tube.
Call: 020 7563 9500
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP.
Bond Street or Oxford Circus Tube.
Call: 020 7935 2141
