The Crystal Palace
A competition for a building to house the Great Exhibition produced 248 plans. The Building Committee disliked them all and attempted to design their own, putting together …
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Architectural history of the V&A 1836–1854
The origins of the Museum are as complex as the building itself. They date back ultimately to 1836, when a report by a House of Commons Select Committee concluded that the …
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Architectural history of the V&A 1856–1861
Prince Albert designed the 'iron house' himself and building began early in 1856. Measuring 81 metres long and 9 metres high, it was large enough to house three two-storey …
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Architectural history of the V&A 1862–1863
With the square of galleries northwards of the Boilers almost complete, Fowke decided the logical way to quickly create more display space was simply to roof over the quadr…
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Architectural history of the V&A 1863–1873
Francis Fowke was a consummate forward-planner. Even before the North and South Courts had been roofed in, he had worked out the details of an ambitious master plan for the…
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Architectural history of the V&A 1873–1899
In 1870 the Treasury announced that the erection and maintenance of all public buildings would now come under the direct control of the Office of Works. This decision stemm…
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Architectural history of the V&A 1899–1909
In May 1899, in what was to be her last public ceremony, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for Aston Webb's new scheme. The occasion also marked the changing of the …
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Architectural history of the V&A: Adapting to new challenges
The first significant modification came in 1932, when the director Sir Eric Maclagan partitioned off a section of the Octagon Court to create some much-needed new storage s…
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Decorative sculpture on the exterior of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Since 1860, the Museum's successive architects, Captain Francis Fowke, and Major-General Henry Scott, had both produced designs for imposing extensions, but the government …
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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.
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Artistic Circles: Design and Decoration in the Aesthetic Movement
Artists' houses and their gardens formed a distinct and influential strand in Victorian architecture and decoration, eliciting public interest and cov…
Buy nowEvent - Quinlan Terry: Classical Architecture Today (Non Members)
Mon 03 June 2013 18:30
EVENING TALK: Award-winning architect Quinlan Terry has championed classical architecture throughout his career.
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