Description
The Victoria and Albert Museum, the V&A, in South Kensington is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design: about 2.8 million objects across 5,000 years, from Italian sculpture and Islamic carpets to fashion, jewelry and photographs. Entry is free.
It started with the Great Exhibition of 1851. Prince Albert and Henry Cole, who helped organize it, bought pieces from the show for a museum meant to teach designers and manufacturers. It opened in South Kensington in 1857.
In 1899 Queen Victoria laid the first stone of the grand front on Cromwell Road, 220 meters of red brick and Portland stone, and announced the new name.
Many of the 145 galleries hold something that surprises. The Cast Courts are two huge halls of plaster copies, built in the 1870s so that students could study Europe's masterpieces without leaving home. Here a full-size Michelangelo's David stands near Trajan's Column, cast in two parts to fit the room.
The Raphael Cartoons are seven full-size designs for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, on loan from the King. Tipu's Tiger is an 18th-century automaton of a tiger mauling a European soldier, made for the ruler of Mysore. The Ardabil Carpet is the centerpiece of the Islamic galleries, which hold over 19,000 objects.
The museum's Italian Renaissance sculpture is the largest collection outside Italy. The Medieval and Renaissance galleries show more than 1,800 objects, and the Ceramics galleries sit at the top of the building under natural light.
The V&A also made a few firsts. In 1856 it opened the world's first museum refreshment room, and three Victorian ones survive, one of them decorated by William Morris. In 1973 it hosted the first rock concert in a British museum. The Ceramic Staircase of 1871, in colored Minton tiles, is worth a look on its own.
The museum even kept its war scars. In the Second World War the collections were moved to quarries, country houses and tube tunnels, and the Raphael Cartoons were walled up in a basement shelter. Pockmarks from bomb splinters remain on the Exhibition Road facade.
Don't miss
• The Cast Courts.
• The Raphael Cartoons.
• Tipu's Tiger.
• The Ardabil Carpet.
• The Medieval and Renaissance galleries.
Did you know?
• Henry Cole renamed the district South Kensington, to make the run-down area sound more attractive.
• The courtyard of the 2017 Exhibition Road entrance is the world's first all-porcelain courtyard, with 11,000 handmade tiles.
• The museum has the world's largest collection of architectural drawings, over 600,000.
It started with the Great Exhibition of 1851. Prince Albert and Henry Cole, who helped organize it, bought pieces from the show for a museum meant to teach designers and manufacturers. It opened in South Kensington in 1857.
In 1899 Queen Victoria laid the first stone of the grand front on Cromwell Road, 220 meters of red brick and Portland stone, and announced the new name.
Many of the 145 galleries hold something that surprises. The Cast Courts are two huge halls of plaster copies, built in the 1870s so that students could study Europe's masterpieces without leaving home. Here a full-size Michelangelo's David stands near Trajan's Column, cast in two parts to fit the room.
The Raphael Cartoons are seven full-size designs for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, on loan from the King. Tipu's Tiger is an 18th-century automaton of a tiger mauling a European soldier, made for the ruler of Mysore. The Ardabil Carpet is the centerpiece of the Islamic galleries, which hold over 19,000 objects.
The museum's Italian Renaissance sculpture is the largest collection outside Italy. The Medieval and Renaissance galleries show more than 1,800 objects, and the Ceramics galleries sit at the top of the building under natural light.
The V&A also made a few firsts. In 1856 it opened the world's first museum refreshment room, and three Victorian ones survive, one of them decorated by William Morris. In 1973 it hosted the first rock concert in a British museum. The Ceramic Staircase of 1871, in colored Minton tiles, is worth a look on its own.
The museum even kept its war scars. In the Second World War the collections were moved to quarries, country houses and tube tunnels, and the Raphael Cartoons were walled up in a basement shelter. Pockmarks from bomb splinters remain on the Exhibition Road facade.
Don't miss
• The Cast Courts.
• The Raphael Cartoons.
• Tipu's Tiger.
• The Ardabil Carpet.
• The Medieval and Renaissance galleries.
Did you know?
• Henry Cole renamed the district South Kensington, to make the run-down area sound more attractive.
• The courtyard of the 2017 Exhibition Road entrance is the world's first all-porcelain courtyard, with 11,000 handmade tiles.
• The museum has the world's largest collection of architectural drawings, over 600,000.