Victoria and Albert Museum










As the world's leading museum of art and design, the V&A enriches people's lives by promoting the practice of design and increasing knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of the designed world.
Venue Type:
Museum
Additional info
See website for details
The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.
The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day.
Although the V&A's collections are international in their scope, they contain many particularly important British works - especially British silver, ceramics, textiles and furniture.
Part of the RIBA Trust's British Architecture Library, a Designated Collection of national importance, is on display at this museum.
The collection provides comprehensive coverage of all aspects of architecture. It is fundamental to the study of architecture in Britain and is nationally and internationally significant.
Items from this collection
Collection details
World Cultures, Weapons and War, Toys and Hobbies, Social History, Photography, Personalities, Performing Arts, Music, Fine Art, Design, Decorative and Applied Art, Costume and Textiles, Archives, Architecture, Archaeology
Key artists and exhibits
- The British Galleries 1500-1900 tell the story of British design from the Tudor age to the Victorian era. Fifteen completely refurbished galleries are filled with exhibits reflecting all of the top British designers of the times. The galleries are enhanced by computer interactives, objects to handle, video screens and audio programmes. Highlights include the gigantic Great Bed of Ware (mentioned in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and the wedding suit worn by James II. Inspirational, beautiful and unmatched in scope, the British Galleries offer an entirely new visitor experience in a stunning and innovative setting.
- Designated Collection

Without Walls: Disability and Innovation in Building Design
- 10 February — 29 July 2018 *on now
At the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, this display will focus on the design of a number of different buildings that have been shaped by the needs of deaf and disabled people.
These include a deaf church, a medieval almshouse, a contemporary architect-designed private house for a disabled client, a new vision for a mental illness asylum, and items from the archive of pioneering disability activists Maggie and Ken Davis, whose determination and vision saw them successfully commission in the 1970s the first council housing that allowed disabled people to live independently outside of institutionalised care.
Part of the History of Place project, which will also be running exhibitions and displays at MShed in Bristol and the Museum of Liverpool.
Suitable for
- Any age
Admission
FREE
Website
http://historyof.place/events/exhibition-at-the-victoria-and-albert-museum/

Menswear and Masculinities
- 12 — 13 May 2018 11am-4pm
By 2020, the global menswear industry is expected to be worth $33 billion. Referencing the V&A’s diverse collection of men’s clothing and dress accessories, unpick the social and political threads that hold the male wardrobe together, considering changing attitudes across the ages and into the future.
Thematic lectures that focus on suiting and shoes, cutting and colours will consider how and why attitudes to men’s dress have changed between the Middle Ages and modernity. Unravelling the complex relationship that men have with their clothing, the course will place current menswear trends in their social context and explore future possibilities for the menswear industry.
Suitable for
- 18+
Admission
£288 full price, £260 over 60s, £195 concessions
Website
https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/ZLnXjPRG/menswear-and-masculinities-2018
Architectural Style
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/architecture/style_level1.php?id=0
Website with pictures and descriptions of a broad range of architectural styles, historical and contemporary Western, Asian and Islamic. There is also an interactive Style Quiz.
Design Your Own Arts and Crafts Tile
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1312_artsandcrafts/design_a_tile/
Drop-in Design
http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/families/index.html
Hunt for ideas in the gallery then have a go at your own designs, using a design challenge. Creative sessions in the V&A's Sackler Centre on Sundays between 10.30 and 17.00, for all ages.
How to obtain
Drop-in Design events are free and there is no need to book - just drop in.
Egyptian Style Art Deco Head-dress`
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1157_art_deco/kids/
Make Your Own Thaumatrope
http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/kids/things_to_make/thaumatrope/index.html
Wallpaper Design
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1185_families/flash/
Getting there
London Underground (The Tube): The V&A is a five minute walk from South Kensington underground station (on the Piccadilly, Circle and District Line). South Kensington is a five minute tube journey from Victoria, ten minutes from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from King's Cross St Pancras.
The V&A is a ten minute walk from Knightsbridge underground station (on the Piccadilly Line). Knightsbridge is a ten minute tube journey from Covent Garden and Leicester Square and 15 minutes from Kings Cross St Pancras.
Bus: Buses C1, 14, 74 and 414 stop outside the Cromwell Road entrance. The Open Tour stop outside the Museum as part of their Double Decker Bus site-seeing tour of London.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
South Kensington
London
Greater London
SW7 2RL
England
Website
Telephone
020 7942 2000
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