Victoria and Albert Museum

The V&A in South Kensington is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, with more than 2.8 million objects spanning 5,000 years. It traces its origins to the Government School of Design of 1832. Its first director, Henry Cole, meant it to educate the public and improve British industry by showing makers the best of everything. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of Aston Webb's grand front on Cromwell Road in 1899, and at that ceremony the South Kensington Museum was renamed after her and Prince Albert. With more than 140 galleries it is best treated as several separate visits.

A few rooms stand out in the building itself. The Cast Courts are two huge top-lit halls, three storeys high, filled with Victorian plaster copies, including Trajan's Column cut in two to fit and a full-size David by Michelangelo. They are among the strangest and most enjoyable spaces in London. Two of the museum's original refreshment rooms survive as showpieces. The Morris Room was decorated by William Morris's firm with Philip Webb and has windows by Burne-Jones. The Gamble Room is covered floor to ceiling in glazed ceramic. The West Hall holds the Raphael Cartoons, Raphael's full-size designs for tapestries.

For the objects, choose a few. Tipu's Tiger is an 18th-century automaton made for Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore. The Ardabil Carpet is the centrepiece of the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art. The Great Bed of Ware, a huge carved four-poster of about 1590–1600, is in the British Galleries. The fashion gallery and the jewellery rooms are worth seeing too. At the Exhibition Road side, Amanda Levete's 2017 entrance leads through the world's first all-porcelain courtyard, and in the middle of the main building is the John Madejski Garden.

Getting there

The museum is on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, about 1 km from Chelsea. South Kensington Underground station (Circle, District and Piccadilly lines) is linked to the museum by a pedestrian tunnel under Exhibition Road. London City Airport (LCY) is about 16 km away, though Heathrow is the main international gateway for west London.