Room 55: Britain Study Area

Clore Study Area
Room 55 is one of two study areas in the British Galleries. Visitors are encouraged to use the resources available here for further exploration of the ideas and objects in the galleries. On the computers there are style guides, video programmes and other interactives including the opportunity to contribute to the V&A's online history project.
Breathless
Also in the room is an installation, Breathless, by contemporary British artist, Cornelia Parker. Breathless, involves musical instruments acquired from old establishments, squashed by another age-old institution, Tower Bridge and now suspended on stainless steel wire. The piece is an attempt to capture a number of different contradictions and is seen by the artist herself as a 'ghostly last gasp of the British Empire'.
Room 55 is on Level 2 of the V&A South Kensington.
A gift in your will
You may not have thought of including a gift to a museum in your will, but the V&A is a charity and legacies form an important source of funding for our work. It is not just the great collectors and the wealthy who leave legacies to the V&A. Legacies of all sizes, large and small, make a real difference to what we can do and your support can help ensure that future generations enjoy the V&A as much as you have.
MoreShop online
The Lost Album: A Visual History of 1950s Britain
A captivating snapshot of how people lived and played in Britain during the 1950s.
Buy nowEvent - Handmade in Britain
Wed 22 February 2012 13:00

LUNCHTIME LECTURE: Join V&A curator Joanna Norman as she discusses some of the objects featured in the BBC Handmade in Britain programmes, looking at how and why they were made, and what they say about the social and cultural context in which we have lived in the past and continue to live today.
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