Under Gallery
The Under Gallery was a gallery established by Elizabeth I to house dangerous art.
Layout[[edit] | edit source]
National Gallery location[[edit] | edit source]
The Under Gallery was seven storeys deep. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
The highest part of the Under Gallery was level with the National Gallery, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) having its entrance behind the Painting of Elizabeth I and the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"], PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) By one account, the entrance led into a vaulted room filled with statues covered in sheets. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"]) By another account, the painting entrance simply led to the top of a damp stone staircase. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
The higher floors were collections of painting, statues bound in sheets, and secure wooden cabinets containing artefacts. Some areas also had shelves of many menacing old books. Items on the walls included a painting which was turned to the wall with a note saying "DO NOT TURN WHILE ALONE" and a mirror that showed the back of someone's head (or their face if they were looking away). The cabinets included one with racks of green daggers whose blades reflected a person's eyes back at them whatever angle they were looking from, one with rows of one-eyed humanoid skulls, and one with many mummified rats. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
A lower floor was mostly empty by 2013, with the Curator having moved some of its materials to the Black Archive. By one account, this was where the Doctor noticed that the floor was covered in stone dust. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"])
The deepest level (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (novelisation)"]) contained a room which had a fez and a dried pufferfish on display on stands in its middle. The walls had paintings including a version of The Raft of the Medusa with Cybermen and a version of The Sampling Officials with Ood. It also had several cabinets and two gryphon gargoyles. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
The room next to the previous one contained the stasis cube paintings containing Zygons. (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Day of the Doctor (TV story)"])
History[[edit] | edit source]
Queen Elizabeth I founded the Under Gallery in 1562 (AUDIO: The Curator's Gambit) to store art too dangerous for public consumption. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) It was located beneath Hampton Court Palace until it was relocated by Queen Victoria beneath the newly-built National Gallery in the 1830s. (AUDIO: The Curator's Gambit)
The entrance went unnoticed to the general public; the Curator remarked that not everyone could see it at all and few were invited. (AUDIO: Lost Property)
In 2013, the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald were summoned there by UNIT to investigate a disturbance concerning broken Time Lord paintings. Upon arrival the Doctor discovered he had been made curator by the Queen, and that it was her wish that he be summoned should there be any disturbance there. It was later discovered that a group of Zygons had infiltrated the Under-Gallery by breaking out of the paintings, in reality Time Lord stasis cubes. Before the Doctor left, he met the acting curator of the Under-Gallery. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
In 2014 or 2015, Kate Stewart called the Curator and arranged to have the arch moved to the Under Gallery to keep it from the Eleven. (AUDIO: Eleven's Eleven) The Curator agreed. (AUDIO: The Curator's Gambit)
In 2020, the Curator intentionally led Helen Sinclair here, knowing she would follow. While here, he asked her to take care of the Eighth Doctor, and warned her to expect danger on the horizon. (AUDIO: Lost Property)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | edit source]
- The Under Gallery appeared as a location in STAGE: Time Fracture [+]Loading...["Time Fracture (stage play)"]. The room featured there included a version of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
