2025 Jan #7: Victoria & Albert

Today we visited the Victoria & Albert museum. It’s astonishing. More later..

Took a bus back to Kensington & walked the last bit, through the Cornwall Gardens:

The red dots in the last photo are guys with chainsaws trimming the tree.

So the V&A museum was conceived to give the citizens access to the treasure collected when Britain was the most powerful and richest country on earth. Opened in 1851, it’s been free to the public ever since. It’s clear you can make a L5 donation but not required and that’s nothing.

The building itself is as impressive as the contents; these shots are in the dining room:

We took a 1 hour tour, ‘highlights’, with an excellent guide called Mandy, 5 stars.

A bust of Henry VII made from a cast of his head when he died so this is actually what he looked like:

Rafael’s cartoons - paintings done by Rafael in 15something as patterns for tapestries for the Cistine Chapel in the Vatican:

A 16th century carpet the size of a house:

Afterward we walked through Harrod’s on the way to get a bus home. This is one of the dining rooms:

And home on the bus:

Total distance walked: 5.5 miles.