New behind-the-scenes tours

The Royal Academy Library designed by H. T. Cadbury-Brown RA Tours of the RA Collections, Library and Archive offer a rare opportunity to explore behind the scenes of one of the oldest, richest and least-known repositories of British art in this country.

The RA Collections, which hold important works by many of our most admired painters, sculptors, architects and printmakers, are unique in having been assembled not by connoisseurs or museum curators, but by and for artists themselves in honour of their peers.

Discover hidden corners of Burlington House, find the human side of the Academy in its archives – including Queen Victoria’s paint box and Reynolds’s shoe buckles – and browse in the oldest Fine Arts library in Britain.

• One-hour tour 10.30am every second Tuesday of the month (£12); two-hour tour 6pm every first Friday (£20, including glass of wine)

• Click here for further information and to book tours, or telephone 020 7300 5839

• Royal Academy of Arts