Britain

Room 52: Portraiture, Public Entertainment and Chinoiserie

The George Levy Gallery looks at the effect public entertainment areas, such as the Spring Gardens in Vauxhall, had on the development of art and design.

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Room 52a: Britain Discovery Area

In this Discovery Area, you have the opportunity to try on a hoop or tie a cravat and even attempt to put together a Rococo or Palladian picture frame. There is also inform…

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Room 52b: Spitalfields Silks & Taking Tea

This room has an interesting combination of objects relating to tea-drinking in the mid 17th century as well as the development of silk-weaving in Spitalfields, London.

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Room 53: Rococo Style

Room 53 is a study into the flamboyant Rococo style. It was used mainly for objects and interiors and never used for architecture apart from the occasional garden building,…

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Room 53a: More Rococo & Developments in Ceramics

Room 53a delves further into the asymmetrical Rococo style . Motifs which typify the style such as 'C' and 'S' scrolls as well as marine elements can be seen on several obj…

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Room 54: Baroque, Palladianism and Propaganda

Room 54 reflects the flourishing of skills such as decorative painting, carving, metalwork and upholstery in the exuberant Baroque style. Foreign artists and craftsmen, suc…

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Room 54a: The Melville Bed

The Melville Bed was commissioned by George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville, for his new house in Fife.

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Room 55: Britain Study Area

Room 55 is one of two study areas in the British Galleries, also in the room is an installation, Breathless, by contemporary British artist, Cornelia Parker.

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Room 56: The Civil War Years

The Djanogly Gallery contains a vivid display on the magnificent dressing of the nobility in the early 1700s. This includes, elaborate items of clothing and accessories suc…

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Room 56c: Britain & the Indies

This room looks at the development of British art and design in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as a result of Britain's burgeoning trade with Asia and the Americas.…

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Room 57: The Great Bed of Ware

he enormous, three-metre-wide, Great Bed of Ware dominates Room 57. Probably built for an inn at Ware, Hertfordshire, about 1590, it is twice the size of a normal bed of th…

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Room 58: Renaissance Style

Henry VIII, a great patron of the arts, spent lavishly on furnishings, paintings, tapestries and silver. Examples of these objects are displayed in room 58.

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Room 58b: Heraldry & Sheldon Tapestries

Room 58b contains a display on heraldry in the 16th century as well as a selection of Sheldon tapestries. William Sheldon set up the first two significant English tapestry …

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Room 118: Neo-classicism in Britain

This Wolfson Gallery looks at how Neo-classicism transformed architecture and design in Britain in the second half of the 18th century.

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Room 120: Beckford, Hope & Regency Classicism

The Wolfson Galleries feature several personalities who influenced art and design in the early 19th century. Among them are William Beckford, the collector and Thomas Hope,…

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Room 121: Britain Study Area

Room 121 is one of two study areas in the British Galleries also in the room is an installation, Breathless, by contemporary British artist, Cornelia Parker.

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Room 122: Gothic Revival & Empire

Room 122 looks at the Gothic Revival in architecture and design in the 19th century. During this time, powerful religious revivals took place leading to the establishment o…

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Room 122b: Britain Discovery Area

Room 122b is one of three Discovery Areas within the British Galleries. Here you can try on a corset or a crinoline as well as experiment with building a crystal palace.

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Room 122c: Furniture, Technological Innovations

Room 122c looks at the impact of technological change on product design and manufacturing in the Victorian age. In the textile industry, the invention of the Jacquard loom …

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Room 122d: Gothic Revival

The display on the Gothic Revival in the mid 19th century beginning in Room 122 continues here. The Gothic style which dominated architecture and decoration in the middle a…

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Room 123: Celebration & Commemoration

Room 123 includes an interesting display of commemorative items made for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887.

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Room 125: Morris, Dresser & Mackintosh

This Edwin and Susan Davies Gallery looks at the different styles which prevailed in the late 19th century. These included aestheticism, a style based on the philosophy of …

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Room 122b: Britain Discovery Area

Room 122b is one of three Discovery Areas within the British Galleries. Here you can try on a corset or a crinoline as well as experiment with building a crystal palace.

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Room 125c: Influences from Beyond Europe

This gallery shows objects from Victorian Britain when retailers sold a growing range of goods imported from Asia and the Islamic world.

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