The Stanley Spencer Gallery is a small gallery in Cookham

Cookham

Cookham is a village and civil parish in the north-easternmost corner of Berkshire in England, on the River Thames, notable as the home of the artist Stanley Spencer. It lies north of Maidenhead close to the border with Buckinghamshire...

, a village next to the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

.

Art gallery

The gallery celebrates the famous English painter Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959), who lived in the village. Many of his works depict villagers and village life and his religious paintings often had Cookham as their backdrop.

In 2007 the gallery was completely renovated internally at a cost of over £800,000 and was reopened on 29 September 2007http://www.cookham.com/community/news/about/spencer/launch/launch.htm.

Building

The building was erected as a Methodist

Methodism

Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 Chapel in 1846. As a boy, Stanley Spencer, and also his mother were amongst the congregation. The modest Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 porch was added in 1911 when Colonel F. C. Ricardo, a great local philanthropist, purchased it after a new larger one was built. He set up a reading room there and named it the King's Hall after King George V

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

. On his death in 1924, he left a legacy of £814 2s 0d to pay for the maintenance of the Hall. The Stanley Spencer Gallery was opened in the hall in 1962.

Nearby Spencer buildings

Not far from the gallery is "Fernlea", the cottage where Spencer was born and lived in Cookham High Street.

External links

• The Stanley Spencer Gallery — gallery information
• Information from Culture24