Security guards at the National Gallery in London have been barred from the staff recreation room known as the "hub" since their roles were outsourced to a facilities-management company, according to a staffing report obtained by The Guardian. The guards now take their breaks in a cramped, windowless basement with no air-conditioning.

The hub, created in previously underused spaces between and beneath the gallery's exhibition halls, remains accessible to the gallery's directly employed staff, from curators to marketing personnel. It features a heavily subsidised canteen with its own chef. The basement assigned to outsourced security staff contains a kiosk offering little more than a KitKat and no cooked food.

The National Gallery has told security staff that restricting hub access is about avoiding overcrowding. Guards remain barred from the space during weekends and holidays, however, when virtually no in-house gallery employees use it. A senior National Gallery curator, speaking anonymously to The Guardian, said there are roughly 60 security guards on site on any given day, but barely a handful take their break simultaneously. The same curator described security staff as being treated like "second-class citizens."

The PCS union, which represents the guards, has characterised the situation as one of "absolute contempt." PCS warned that the basement space is unventilated and accessible only by ducking under pipes. The union's concerns extend beyond break facilities. Security staff feel the gallery is putting its collection at risk by expecting a single guard to cover as many as four rooms at once.

The security concerns are not abstract. Recent incidents at the National Gallery include Just Stop Oil activists throwing tomato soup over Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" and attacking Velázquez's "Rokeby Venus" with hammers. The gallery's own Annual Report and Accounts, published 15 July 2026, places the costs of front-of-house and security staff within the activity described as "Broaden our appeal and provide an exceptional visitor experience."

On 1 July 2026, the PCS union wrote to the National Gallery's director arguing that forcing a largely black and Asian workforce into the basement while largely white in-house staff enjoy fresh air, sunlight and decent break facilities was "potentially discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010." The union was still awaiting a reply as of the Guardian's report on 2 August 2026. Staff have likened the arrangement to "Upstairs, Downstairs," the television drama about class relations in Edwardian England.

The broader context here is one of institutional friction at a gallery that has faced sustained criticism over its labour practices. According to Tribune magazine, the National Gallery's outsourcing and treatment of staff is driving its BAME workforce into poverty and precarity. In a separate dispute, 27 former educators at the gallery are pursuing legal action alleging unfair dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of length of service, age, and sex.

The National Gallery's own institutional documents present a contrasting self-image. Its Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement, covering the financial year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, states that all staff are required to undergo Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks. Its Visitor Admissions Policy, published 27 April 2026, commits to acknowledging all feedback within five working days. Following a 2017 incident involving a Gainsborough painting, the gallery issued a statement praising its security team for dealing with the matter "rapidly and professionally" and preventing harm to people.

The question now is whether the Equality Act challenge from PCS compels a formal response from the gallery's director, and whether the juxtaposition of an institutional culture that publicly celebrates its security team while physically segregating its members from in-house amenities can hold without reputational cost. The collection the guards protect, after recent high-profile attacks, has never been more visibly at risk; the staffing model designed to protect it has never been more visibly strained.