Victoria & Albert Museum London
How to Navigate London’s Wondrous (and Very Big) V&A Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is an enormous cabinet of wonders, filled with 5,000 years of artistic production with more than 60,000 works on view in about 150 galleries beneath 21 acres of roof.
Paintings, ceramics, photography, fashion, furniture and more: The Victoria and Albert Museum is a treasure trove of art and design. Here’s one besotted visitor’s plan for taking it all in.
Even for someone who loves getting lost in museums — especially “everything museums” like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — London’s Victoria and Albert Museum might have been my Waterloo. The statistics are daunting: 5,000 years of artistic production with more than 60,000 works on view (from a collection of some 2.8 million) in about 150 galleries beneath 21 acres of roof.
The V&A typically draws around 3 million annual visitors, but even on the busiest days, the museum has the space and setup to largely avoid the sense of competing with the crowds. Since visiting the permanent collection is free (some exhibitions cost up to 20 pounds, or about $25), once you’re in the door you can just start wandering. Step right for medieval mosaics and Renaissance tapestries or go deep for 1940s Paris fashion, Baroque sculpture and, beyond that, Buddhist art.
It’s easy to spend an entire day in the V&A. Here’s a plan for making the most of your visit. But first a bit of background.
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