Stanley Spencer Gallery,High Street

Stanley Spencer Gallery

The Stanley Spencer Gallery is unique as the only gallery in Britain devoted exclusively to an artist in the village where he was born and spent most of his life. Set in the heart of the village he immortalised, the gallery occupies the former Victorian Methodist Chapel where Spencer was taken as a child to worship. Not far from Fernley, the house where Spencer was born and lived in Cookham High Street, the gallery was opened in 1962 as a memorial through the effort of the people of Cookham and support from far beyond. The exhibits change during the year and the gallery contains a permanent collection of his work including The Last Supper 1920, Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta 1959, etc, together with letters, documents, memorabilia, and the pram in which Spencer wheeled his equipment when painting landscapes. It also displays important works on long-term loan, and mounts a winter and summer exhibition each year. Over a thousand works have been shown since the gallery opened.