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National Gallery, London<br>news

Sainsbury Wing contractors find 1990 letter from donor anticipating their demolition of false columns

Work on foyer reveals John Sainsbury’s note buried in extension to London’s National Gallery

Martin Bailey

27 August 2024

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"To those who find this letter": In July 1990 John Sainsbury (Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover) left a typed and signed note in one of the false columns during building work on the lobby of the new Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery Sainsbury: AP Photo/Ann Purkiss. Letter: Courtesy of the National Gallery and by permission of the Sainsbury family

A “time capsule” has been discovered at London’s National Gallery, buried deep in a column in the foyer of the Sainsbury Wing. It is a letter recording that one of the wing’s funders, John Sainsbury (Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover), believed the architects had committed a serious “mistake”. The 1990 letter, typed on Sainsbury’s supermarket notepaper, has recently been deposited in the gallery’s archive as an historic document.<br>John Sainsbury is critical in the letter of the American post-Modernist architect Robert Venturi and his professional partner and wife Denise Scott Brown for inserting two large false columns in the gallery’s foyer that served no structural purpose. Other than the false columns, John Sainsbury was happy with the Venturi and Scott Brown design.<br>While building work was under way, Sainsbury gained access to the site and dropped his letter into a concrete column that was under construction. The letter, protected in a plastic folder, was discovered last year, when the foyer was being reconfigured.<br>The Sainsbury letter of 26 July 1990 was addressed “To those who find this note”—who turned out to be the 2023 demolition workers.<br>The note, typed in capital letters, continues:<br>IF YOU HAVE FOUND THIS NOTE YOU MUST BE ENGAGED IN DEMOLISHING ONE OF THE FALSE COLUMNS THAT HAVE BEEN PLACED IN THE FOYER OF THE SAINSBURY WING OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY. I BELIEVE THAT THE FALSE COLUMNS ARE A MISTAKE OF THE ARCHITECT AND THAT WE WOULD LIVE TO REGRET OUR ACCEPTING THIS DETAIL OF HIS DESIGN.<br>LET IT BE KNOWN THAT ONE OF THE DONORS OF THIS BUILDING IS ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED THAT YOUR GENERATION HAS DECIDED TO DISPENSE WITH THE UNNECESSARY COLUMNS.<br>John Sainsbury's letter of 26 July 1990 was discovered last year, protected in a plastic folder, during building works to reconfigure the foyer of the Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery Courtesy of the National Gallery and by permission of the Sainsbury family

John and his wife Anya presumably never imagined that the demolition of the Sainsbury Wing foyer might take place during their lifetimes. John, one of the most generous UK donors to the arts, died in 2022, aged 94. His widow Anya, a former ballerina, was present when her husband’s note was removed. “I was so happy for John’s letter to be rediscovered after all these years,” she says, “and I feel he would be relieved and delighted for the gallery’s new plans and the extra space they are creating.”<br>The Sainsbury Wing was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, just under a year after John wrote his time capsule letter. It was entirely funded by John and his two Sainsbury brothers: Simon (who died in 2006) and Timothy (a former Conservative minister, now aged 92). It was their great-grandfather who established the London grocery shop which has now become the UK’s second largest supermarket chain, after Tesco.

I was so happy for John’s letter to be rediscovered after all these years, and I feel he would be relieved and delighted for the gallery’s new plans and the extra space they are creating Anya Sainsbury

Neil MacGregor, the director of the National Gallery when the Sainsbury Wing was planned and built, tells The Art Newspaper: “Venturi wanted the foyer to have the feel of a mighty crypt, leading upstairs to the galleries, so it was a subsidiary space—the beginning of a journey, not a destination. John Sainsbury argued that sightlines should be as unencumbered as possible, thinking the extra columns would conceal the entrance to the lecture theatre and temporary exhibition galleries, confusing the visitor.”<br>Anya Sainsbury (centre) holds her late husband John’s 1990 letter after being shown it on site in the Sainsbury Wing by the National Gallery’s director, Gabriele Finaldi (left) and chairman, John Booth, last year<br>Photo: Sarah Butler-Sloss

MacGregor ultimately concluded in the late 1980s that the false columns were acceptable: “Although there were drawbacks, Venturi had a coherent idea of the organic link between entrance hall, staircase and main galleries. I felt that, on balance, we should...