London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is the home of the world’s greatest collection of applied art and design. Its galleries reflect centuries of achievement in such varied fields as ceramics, furniture, jewellery, metalwork, textiles and dress from all over the world.
Founded in 1852 as a Museum of Manufactures, it was moved five years later from Marlborough House in central London to the fields of Brompton, where it became known as the “South Kensington Museum.”
The “V&A,” as the museum is affectionately known in London, is not a museum of Victoriana. In 1899 Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the present building which was re-named “The Victoria and Albert Museum” in honour of the Queen and her late husband.