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Nearest Underground stations: South Kensington (5-minute walk), Gloucester Road (10-minute walk). Victoria Station (35-minute walk) Bike-hire is available at Exhibition Road and Thurloe Place. Several bus routes stop at V&A South Kensington – see tfl.gov.uk for details. Find out about parking around the V&A.
Plan your visit to the V&A family of museums. Our venues in South Kensington, Bethnal Green, Dundee and Stoke-on-Trent are open and free to visit now.
From ancient Chinese ceramics to Alexander McQueen evening dresses, take an incredible journey through 5000 years of human creativity with our online collections.
The V&A Shop Online promotes ranges from the Victoria and Albert Museum Shop. Shop online for V&A books, quilting fabric, fashion, designer jewellery, posters and prints, framed prints, homeware, crafting materials, exhibition ranges and exclusive gifts inspired by the V&A Collections.
Fragile, ephemeral, and easy to replace, wallpaper has often disappeared from the historical record. The V&A began collecting wallpapers from its foundation in 1856, and today has one of the finest collections in the world. Read more. Explore the Collections.
The richest source for kimono motifs comes from the natural world. Flowers such as peonies, wisteria, bush clover and hollyhocks frequently appear on garments. Many of them, for example cherry blossom, chrysanthemums and maple leaves, have a seasonal significance. Kimono, 1780-1800, Japan.
The cult of the ballerina. By the 1840s women had become the great ballet stars and ballerinas wore the familiar bell shaped dress with cap sleeves, low cut bodice and long skirts. If you look at fashion plates of the period you can see that costumes developed from fashionable dress of the time.
Victorian Christmas traditions. From Christmas cards to decorated trees and Christmas crackers, many of our best-known Christmas traditions are products of the Victorian era. At the dawn of the 19th century, Christmas was hardly celebrated – at least, not in a way we would recognise today.
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In 1899 it was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in honour of the Queen and her husband. The V&A is several buildings linked together. The main building is in Cromwell Road, and it has figures of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert over the entrance. It was opened in 1909.
