The beautiful Pallant House Gallery is one of my favourite places to visit – guaranteeing many pleasurable hours spent admiring the latest exhibitions, breaking for a scrumptious lunch and then rounding up with a good browse around the gallery bookshop.

Situated in a Grade I listed Queen Anne townhouse, the Gallery is known as the home of Modern Art in the South. The original building has an award-winning contemporary wing, and on the inside, the clean, white, modern spaces make it a lovely, calming place to spend time. Best of all, they always have an exciting line-up of exhibitions, workshops, talks, tours and live performances to chose from.

Culture aside, for me, the highlight of any visit has to be a stop in at Field & Fork – the superb gallery restaurant which extends into a lovely courtyard shaded by plane trees. It’s a real treat! The delicious food is all freshly prepared using the finest locally-sourced ingredients. They even grow their own vegetables, salads and soft fruit in a half acre greenhouse, which can be visited by prior arrangement.

The final icing on the cake is the gallery bookshop with a large range of new and out of print books on modern British art. Although these are available to buy online it is much better to leave enough time in your visit to browse the bookshelves as well as checking out the wonderful shop merchandise.

Photo courtesy of Claire Sambrook on Flickr