The Box is Plymouth’s new cultural destination, proudly led by Plymouth City Council in Britain's Ocean City. A museum, gallery and archive. A cafe, shop and bar. A place that you can make your own, and where there's always something new to discover.

The Box holds a large collection of oil paintings. Works span the 1500s to the 2000s representing artists from Tiepolo to Burne-Jones and Kurt Jackson. The collection was developed to represent the rich artistic heritage of the South West, containing works by local artists such as James Northcote, Samuel Prout and Benjamin Robert Haydon. The Designated Cottonian Collection of Old Master Prints and Drawings was transferred to the City in 1915 and contains a number of portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Works in the collection have been donated or acquired with the assistance of funding bodies. The Box is still actively collecting, with a focus on expanding the breadth and context of the collection as well as striving to acquire contemporary works.

Perhaps The Box's most notable painting is 'A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach' by Stanhope Forbes. In addition, ‘Napoleon on the Bellerophon’ by Jules Giradet and ‘Elizabeth I’ by Zucchero, dated to the 1500s, are firm favourites.