An unusual and iconic outdoor street gallery will open for free to the public thanks to a – £99,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Fields of Battle Lands of Peace 14-18 will open on 4 August 2014 in St James’s Park, London, before touring across the country over the four years. A preview of the exhibition is currently on display in Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament.

Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said:

The exhibition will take huge numbers of visitors to London on a thought provoking journey through the First World War and then will continue to do so up and down the country as it embarks on a four year tour.

The precise timing of the exhibition – August 2014 – is of course linked to the start of the centenary of the First World War, 1914-1918. My department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is overseeing a national four year centenary programme which will honour the lives and bravery of all those who served in the war and help develop a shared history of how the war shaped and affected us as a nation.

The gallery will feature photographs, maps, poems and infographics, along with moving personal accounts and a mobile education centre manned by volunteers. Visitors will also be able to contribute to an online interactive archive to discuss and share information.