Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in 1852 in the aftermath of the Great Exhibition of 1851, initially as the Museum of Manufactures before being renamed in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, whose consort laid the foundation stone of the current Cromwell Road building. Aston Webb's Edwardian Baroque facade, completed in 1909, fronts a sprawling complex of over 145 galleries housing more than 2.3 million objects spanning 5,000 years of art, design, and performance from across the world. The collection ranges from the Islamic Ardabil Carpet, one of the world's oldest dated carpets, to Raphael's cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries, the world's largest collection of Constable paintings, and the V&A's renowned costume and textiles holdings, including historic fashion by designers from Dior to Vivienne Westwood. Curatorial organisation is largely by material and geography, such as ceramics, glass, ironwork, Asian art, and British galleries, rather than strict chronology, reflecting the museum's origin as a teaching resource for designers and manufacturers. The cast courts, filled with plaster and electrotype reproductions of major European sculpture including Michelangelo's David, have been part of the museum since the 19th century and remain a distinctive feature. A major 2017 extension by Amanda Levete, the Exhibition Road Quarter, added a porcelain-tiled courtyard and underground gallery for temporary exhibitions. The museum's Victorian ironwork and tile-clad refreshment rooms, including the Gamble Room, are themselves historic exhibits, having opened in 1868 as the first museum restaurant in the world.