The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum from London is the most the largest museum of decorative arts and design from the world. The museum hosts a permanent collection of over 6.5 million objects.

Here you will discover a lot of work representing more than 3,000 years of human creativity.

Located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in 1852 and the denomination comes from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A covers 12.5 acres (51,000 m2) and 145 galleries.

Initially knowned as the Museum of Manufactures, at Marlborough House, the museum was transferred to Somerset House. In February 1854 was renamed in the South Kensington Museum.

The Victoria & Albert Museum is split into four Collections departments,:

- Asia
- Furniture, Textiles and Fashion
- Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics
- Glass and Word & Image

The collection departments are divided into sixteen display areas, whose combined collection numbers over 6.5 million objects, not all items are displayed or stored at the V&A.

Each collection has a big number of objects:

- Architecture (annex of the RIBA) - 2,050,000
- Asia - 160,000
- British Galleries (cross department display) - ... don't know
- Ceramics - 74,000
- Childhood (annex of the V&A) - 20,000
- Contemporary (cross department function) - ... don't know
- Fashion & Jewellery - 28,000
- Furniture - 14,000
- Glass - 6,000
- Metalwork - 31,000
- Paintings & Drawings - 202,500
- Photography - 500,000
- Prints & Books - 1,500,000
- Sculpture - 17,500
- Textiles - 38,000
- Theatre (includes V&A Theatre Collections Reading Room, an annex of the former Theatre Museum) - 1,905,000

The Victoria & Albert Museum has 145 galleries, but given the vast extent of the collections, only a small percentage is ever on display.

Prices:
Admission to the V&A : free
Special exhibitions and events: starting with £2 /person

Opening Times:
Daily: 10.00 am - 17.45 pm
Friday: 10.00 am – 22.00 pm
Closed: 24, 25 and 26 DecemberLess