The V&A is Britain’s national museum of art and design, and contains the greatest collection of decorative arts in the world.
The Victoria and Albert Museum was founded in 1852 with the objective of exhibiting the world’s very best examples of design and applied arts in order to inspire students and craftspeople. It has subsequently grown to include an astonishing and immense diversity of objects, so try to link up with one of the six free daily tours (60 min), lead by docents, who are both enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
Perhaps the V&A’s greatest treasures are the Raphael Cartoons, seven huge tapestry designs that have become even more famous than the actual tapestries themselves (which hang in the Sistine Chapel in Rome). While on the ground floor, don’t miss the Italian Renaissance sculptures; the Cast Courts, full-size plaster casts of fascinating European masterpieces including Trajan’s Column and Michelangelo’s David; and the Morris, Poynter and Gamble Rooms, the V&A’s original refreshment rooms and themselves masterpieces of Victorian decoration.
Dip into the treasures of the Orient from China, Japan, the Muslim world and India – don’t miss Tippoo’s Tiger, one of the museum’s most famous pieces – and the Fashion collections.
Changes made since 2005 have made the V&A even better: the ten galleries telling the story of European art and design between AD300 and AD1600, the Jameel Gallery’s Islamic treasures, the Gilbert Collection’s hoard of gold and silver, and the Theatre and Performance Galleries, with memorabilia and film clips from the world of opera, drama and pop music.
Map Reference 4D 
Entrances on Exhibition Road, Cromwell Road 
020 7942 2000; 0844 209 1770 for advance tickets 
Sat–Thu 10–5:45, Fri 10–10. Closed 24–26, 31 Dec, 1 Jan 
Free 
Excellent cafés (£) and (restaurant (££) on premises 
South Kensington 
C1, 14, 74, 414 stop outside Cromwell Road entrance 
Tours: free introductory tours daily (lasting 1 hour) hourly 10:30–3:30