Below the National Portrait Gallery, a Victorian coal vault has become one of the West End’s most quietly thrilling spaces

There is something quietly thrilling about dining beneath an institution. Reached through a discreet entrance off Charing Cross Road, Larry’s is hidden in the historic underground vaults of the National Portrait Gallery — a space built in 1896 as the gallery’s coal store, now transformed into a low-lit warren of exposed brick and candlelight. The Gallery closes; Larry’s doesn’t. You infiltrate through a side door and descend, in on a secret the daytime crowds never see. Above you, a national collection. Around you, a hundred faces from the Gallery’s archive lining the walls, from Audrey Hepburn to Amy Winehouse, a rotating cast curated from the institution’s own holdings.

Named after Sir Laurence Olivier, Larry’s is the work of the Daisy Green Collection, the Australian-inspired group founded by Prue Freeman and Tom Onions that has quietly threaded its way across London — from canal barges painted by Sir Peter Blake at Paddington to Scarlett Green in Soho, Ziggy Green on Regent Street, and the gallery’s own ground-floor café, Audrey Green. The cooking carries that lineage: modern Australian at heart, sunlit and produce-led, Mediterranean freshness shot through with the occasional pop of Asian flavour.

The food more than earns its setting. We loved it — plates that arrive generous and confident, precise without showing off. A London burrata with heirloom tomatoes and crispy prosciutto; yellowfin tuna tostada, bright with mango and finger lime; the now-famous club sandwich stacked with Clarence Court egg and truffle crisps. To finish, the Lamington Party — three of the group’s signature mini lamingtons — is pure joy. The cocktails are award-winning and properly made, the service warm and attentive without ever hovering, and from Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm to late, there is live jazz curling through the vault.

But it is the atmosphere that lingers: portraits watching over the room, the hum of a gallery overhead, a glass of something cold in hand. A speakeasy in the truest sense — a secret kept in plain sight, in the very centre of London, and one well worth descending for.

Why go To dine inside a piece of the National Portrait Gallery itself — a candlelit Victorian vault hung with iconic faces, where the art on the walls and the institution overhead are half the pleasure. Equal parts date night, pre-theatre treat and late-evening hideaway.

What to order Larry’s Club Sandwich and the yellowfin tuna tostada to start; the London burrata to share. A McBean’s Dirty Martini from the award-winning list, and the Lamington Party to close.

Larry’s, -3 Weston Wing, National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin’s Pl, London WC2H 0HE