1 British Museum
2 Covent Garden Piazza
3 Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster)
4 National Gallery
5 Natural History Museum
6 St Paul's Cathedral
7 Science Museum
8 Tower of London
9 Victoria & Albert Museum
10 Westminster Abbey
The V&A is not only Britain's national museum of art and design, but comprises the greatest collection of decorative arts in the world.
The V&A was founded in 1852 with the objective of exhibiting the world's very best examples of design and applied arts in order to inspire students and crafts people. It has subsequently grown to include an astonishing and immense diversity of objects. Your first task is to arm yourself with a map and index to help you navigate the 13km labyrinth of stairs and corridors.
Perhaps the V&A's greatest treasures are the Raphael Cartoons, seven huge tapestry designs that have become even more famous than the actual tapestries themselves (which hang in the Sistine Chapel in Rome). While on the ground floor, don't miss the Italian Renaissance sculptures; the Cast Courts, full-size plaster casts of fascinating European masterpieces including Trajan's Column and Michelangelo's David; the Morris, Poynter and Gamble Rooms, the V&A's original refreshment rooms and masterpieces of Victorian decoration; a dip into the multifarious treasures of the Orient - from China, Japan, Islam and India; and the Dress Collection. On level B. is the Jewellery Gallery, beautifully displayed under Fort Knox-like security conditions. Close by and also worth seeing for its setting alone is the Silver Gallery, while on level C. the sparkling new Glass Gallery is a wonderful exhibition of glass spanning a period of 4,000 years. Tucked away in the Henry Cole Wing are some of John Constable's best works.Address: Entrances on Brompton Road, Cromwell Road
Phone: (020) 7942 2000 WEBSITE: www.vam.ac.uk
Open: Daily 10-5:45. Reopens on Wed eve 6:30-9:30. Closed 24-26, 31 Dec, 1 Jan
Restaurant: Excellent cafés (Inexpensive) and restaurant (Moderately priced) on premises. Sun jazz brunch (11-3) in the New Restaurant
Bus: C1, 14, 74 stop outside Cromwell Road entrance
Metro: South Kensington
Accessible: Excellent. Pick up a detailed leaflet from information desk
Admission: Moderate; free daily 4:30-5:45
Practical: Tours: introductory tours Mon 12:15, 2, 3; Tue-Sun 11, 12, 2, 3; special interest tours Mon 1:30, 2:30; Tue-Sun 11:30, 1:30, 2:30
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