Victoria and Albert Museum

Overview

The V&A stretches across sites in London, Dundee and Stoke-on-Trent, but the most famous gallery is in South Kensington. For almost 170 years, the museum has been gathering objects and records of the global history of art and design, and today those artefacts and exhibitions cover more than 5000 years of creativity.

The collections include everything from contemporary shoes and sunglasses to surrealist pieces, medieval manuscripts, ancient Chinese ceramics and Roman sculpture. There's high fashion and domestic objects, architectural designs, set pieces and costume from theatre and film, furniture, photography, digital artworks and recorded theatrical performance. Some collections focus solely on individual artists, including Beatrix Potter, Vivienne Westwood, William Morris and David Bowie. Take in a tour through the collection highlights and visit the temporary exhibitions, which can cover such artistic endeavours as Japanese fashion, British art pottery and even the discipline of dog photography.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Images: Visit London, Jon Reid