This is however not just all about public circulation and retail. As part of the scheme, the Victorian-designed Central Hall, a grand room set dead centre at the top of the original main stair, has been restored and airconditioned and put back into service as a Renaissance picture gallery. Previously it had been used as a necessary but unsatisfactory makeshift lobby: when people rushed in off Trafalgar Square in the rain, that is where they ended up in their dripping coats. Now, with the footfall directed elsewhere, the Central Hall once again fulfils its original purpose. There you will several of the Gallery's key Titians, including the 1540s Vendramin Family.

Saumarez Smith likes to build. Even though he did not instigate this scheme - that was done by his predecessor Neil McGregor - it derives very clearly from his work at the NPG. He made some detail changes on taking over, but trusts his architects. In his office is a model of future phases of the Dixon/Jones masterplan, which will make a mirror-image west court to the new east court, will use the equivalent west door as its entrance, and in the process open up much more of the basement level to the public. It has a compelling logic. Whether it can find a wellspring of funding in the post-Millennium capital-funding desert is quite another matter. But the National Gallery is, I'm pleased to say, not in the landmark-architecture game these days. Instead, it is quietly getting on with improving things for its customers. It deserves credit for that.

The National Gallery, London: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk