The V&A Museum is packed with notable pieces of decorative art and design made over the past three thousand years by cultures living in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America. There are some great pieces of classical art in the collections but it’s not all paintings and sculpture, a lot of pieces were once just the flotsam and jetsam of daily life. Acquired since 1852, there are four and a half million items in the ever growing collection, displayed in what can be an overwhelming 145 galleries. Luckily the museum has free entry so you don’t need to get around the whole complex in one day.
The Victoria and Albert Museum – known as the V&A – is the world’s leading museum of art and design, with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. It is an international Museum, represented by its worldwide collections, but also in its international programme of touring exhibitions and staff exchanges, web initiatives and licensing partnerships.
It was established in South Kensington in 1852 to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.gained its current name in 1899 when Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new wing and renamed the Museum in memory of her husband, Prince Albert.
The Museum’s collections span over 2000 years of human creativity, in virtually every medium and drawn from across Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Japan and many other parts of the world. The collections include paintings, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, furniture, fashion and textiles, theatre and performance, photography, glass, jewellery and metalwork.
The V&A houses the National Art Library which includes more than 750,000 books dedicated to the study of fine and decorative arts. There are over 2.7 million objects in the V&A’s collection.
Victoria and Albert Museum (known as V&A) in London
The V&A’s own institutional archives are also available for consultation. They provide a rich resource for the study of the history and influence of the Museum. Included in the archive are details of the acquisition and provenance of the Museum’s several million objects; its relations with major donors, collectors and lenders; its collecting policies and development; and the architectural history of the South Kensington site. Many departmental archives are also available, including those of the former Circulation department. Please note that although the archives are public records and are generally available for public consultation, some information in them, such as personal data or information supplied to the V&A in confidence, may be restricted under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Opening times:
10.00 to 17.45 daily
10.00 to 22.00 Fridays (selected galleries remain open after 18.00 )
Closing commences 10 minutes before time stated
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December
Address:
V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7942 2000
Internet:
vanda@vam.ac.uk
http://www.vam.ac.uk
