Mick's Monopoly challenge

     Report on the brilliant National Portrait Gallery added ......   .... as usual, what started out as a few notes ballooned into something much, much bigger, involving a lengthy email exchange with the gallery. I also signed up for membership. Well, it is one of my favourite places. And they do a good lunch.     Whilst I'm very pleased with the pictures and text the formatting isn't perfect. My IT expert advised me that to line everything up exactly as I wish I should go on an HTML programming course. There's no chance of that. Apparently the FORTRAN I learned in 1968 isn't much use. RIP Sir Bobby Charlton . I met the great man a few times and have some fond memories. RIP Megs Wilson , the lovely wife of my friend Bob Wilson, former Arsenal goalkeeper. They founded the wonderful Willow charity.  Donations to Willow  in memory of Megs can be made  here .

National Portrait Gallery       The National Portrait Gallery re-opened in June 2023 following a three-year refurbishment; a favourite of mine; and it's free.        The collection has over 200,000 images, many can be seen on their website. What follows are my personal highlights; most sitters portrayed here feature elsewhere in this blog.       Most of the images below are downloaded from the National Portrait Gallery's brilliant archive and can be used 'in non-commercial projects including blogs'. Where restrictions forbid their use you can still click on the names to view the portraits online - or, better still, visit the gallery.        I've numbered t he rooms in which the pictures are exhibited. Rooms 1-18 are on the 3rd floor; 19-28 the 2nd; 29-32 the 1st; 33 floor 0. Apart from a couple of notable exceptions, all are current (December 2023) exhibits.       You can walk in anytime but i t's ...