Victoria & Albert Museum - See the Cast Courts & Raphael Cartoons

Useful things to know before your visit

Address: Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington SW7 2RL. Telephone: 0207 942 2000. Website: vam.ac.uk

How much do the tickets cost?

The Victoria & Albert Museum is free, but temporary exhibitions might cost extra.

What are the opening hours?

Opening times are 10am to 5.45pm (Mon-Thu and Sat-Sun); 10am to 10pm (Fri).

How much time do you need?

A typical visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum takes 2 to 3 hours.

Which buses go to the Victoria & Albert Museum?

Bus routes 14, 49, 70, 74, 345, 360, 414, 430, 710 and C1 all stop close by.

Which is the closest train station?

The nearest station is South Kensington, which connects with the Circle District and Piccadilly lines. It only takes four minutes to walk to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Which other attractions are nearby?

These attractions are all within 15 minutes walk of the Victoria & Albert Museum: Science Museum, Brompton Oratory, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, Harrods and Albert Memorial.

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My review of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Worth a visit? ★★★Good value? freeGood for kids? ★☆☆

Reviewed by Craig Cross on 4 July 2026. Times and prices updated on 22 July 2026

The V&A is a very handsome looking building from the outside, more like a cathedral than a museum, containing over 5,000 years of decorative art from Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

Entrance hall at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Medieval & Renaissance Galleries

It’s hard to know where to start in a place as big as this so you may as well go with the closest off the entrance – a huge architecture hall with old archways, stairways, balconies, courtyard fountains and fonts.

Roodloft from St. John’s Cathedral in ‘s-Hertogenbosch

They’ve put all the stained-glass windows down a dark corridor that’s backlit by the sun, so you’re walking past shafts of lemon yellow, amber orange, dark scarlet reds and deep velvety greens. It really is a spectacular sight.

Stained glass windows at the Victoria & Albert Museum

And next to them are all the religious treasures – delicate little statues, lecterns, tabernacles, marble carvings of the crucifixion, crosses inlaid with precious gems, ornate little boxes filled with the finger bones of saints, lots of enamelled plaques and silver pewter too. Heavy chests, iron strong boxes… it just goes on and on, and this is just the first wing!

British Galleries & The Great Bed of Ware

The British galleries are a lot darker with old portraits of the Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians and Victorians. They’ve got lots of furniture in here as well: old tables and chairs, wardrobes, drawers and decorative ironwork from the 17th-19th century – fireplaces, gates and grills.

If you’re anything like me then you’ll meander through the rooms without reading the plaques but don’t do that, because then you’ll miss interesting exhibits like the bones of Thomas Becket, Henry VIII’s writing desk from 1525, and the 16th-century Great Bed of Ware – a huge four-poster that was so famous in its day that Shakespeare gave it a mention in Twelfth Night.

Good luck trying to find all of this stuff, by the way. This museum is truly huge and you’ll be in here for a couple of hours at least – half of which will just be you wandering around in circles.

The Cast Courts & Trajan’s Column

Eventually you’ll find one of the most amazing spaces in London – the two-room Cast Courts. Do you remember that scene at the end of Indiana Jones when the Ark of the Covenant got packed off to a big warehouse full of ancient artefacts? Well, that’s the Cast Courts.

I can’t imagine antiquarians getting permission to do this nowadays, but 150 years ago they were travelling around the world slapping plaster over famous monuments so they could make a perfect plaster-cast copy from the mold. It was like an early version of 3D printing, I suppose – they did the pulpit from Pisa Cathedral, the Great Arch from the Basilica of San Petronio, the Pórtico de la Gloria in Santiago, and even Trajan’s Column in Rome.

It means we can see a full-sized copy of Michelangelo’s David without going to Florence, plus other works like the Dying Slave, Rebellious Slave and his sculptures for the Medici Chapels.

Leonardo Da Vinci & Raphael Cartoons

People tend to think of the V&A as a museum more than a gallery, but it also has hundreds of pencil drawings, paintings and watercolours by sone of the greatest names in art like Donatello, Canaletto, Van Dyck, Turner, Constable and Cézanne.

Art gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Highlights include Leonardo Da Vinci’s parchment papers bound up as the Codex Forster III and the huge Raphael Cartoons – a set of seven preps for the tapestries that Pope Leo X commissioned for the Sistine Chapel. They measure 20-feet across and are displayed inside a room that’s bigger than most buildings, all dark and hushed up so you can hear people’s breathing as they shuffle from one to the other.

China, Japan & South Asia Gallery

This is where you’ll find artworks from Central Asia to the Caspian Sea, encompassing India, Indonesia, China and Japan.

The Chinese section is full of old scrolls, pretty little lacquers and pieces of porcelain, cloisonné and jade. They’ve got a huge collection of tea bowls, teapots, chamber pots, cups and jugs, all faintly painted with willow trees and misty mountain scenes of oriental dragons swooping through the storm clouds.

Japanese Samurai armour at the Victoria & Albert Museum — Japanese Samurai armour

The Japanese section is better for weapons: bows, spears and samurai swords. There are also lots of folding screens and fans painted with those little river bridges and pink blossom trees where the ink lines are so fine that if a gust of wind blew through the room it would probably waft them all away.

Islamic & Middle Eastern Art

The Islamic gallery covers the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Spain. This is where you’ll find all the calligraphy, carpets and glass. In the centre of the room is the 16th-century Ardabil Carpet – supposed to be one of the largest in the world. If you want to see it lit up then you’ll have to hang around for the hour until they switch on the light.

Costume & Jewellery Collection

Their costume collection has a few historical objects like James II’s wedding suit, Queen Victoria’s diamond coronet, and a bracelet that belonged to Marie Antoinette, but it’s mainly a display of famous names like Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacroix, Laroche, Dior, Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes.

By the time you reach the theatre section you’ll be sagging after two hours on your feet, but it’s worth a quick walk through their eclectic collection of props and costumes from operas, ballets and plays – everything from Hamlet’s skull and Vivien Leigh’s Cleopatra dress to Fred Astaire’s top hat.

I’ve ranked the Victoria & Albert Museum as ★3 in the museums I’d recommend in London, ★5 in my top 10 London galleries and ★6 in London’s best free days out

It also appears in my best way to see London in a day itineraries, three 2-day London itineraries and 7-day London plan

Need some more ideas? Browse what’s on in London today, things to do in London this weekend, what’s on in London this week and the best events in London this month

What do you think? (6)

Average rating ★★★★★★★★★★Ask a question, or share your experience of the Victoria & Albert Museum

SP I wholeheartedly agree that the Cast Court is such a wonderful place. It’s not often in life that you enter a room that takes your breath away. I recommend viewing them from the balconies above to appreciate the full vista 👍 (reply)

Grace I have been to see the fashion installations, showing dress through the ages, and I just marvelled at how beautifully preserved they were – really well done with lots of space around and mirrors so you can see all angles of the costumes. I went up to see the gems collection too – being a bit of a magpie – it was just wonderful to see the jewellery, diamonds and famous gems. The cafe is lovely. (reply)

paulo How much is it. (reply)

↳Craig Hi Paulo. The main galleries are all free, but they usually have a temporary exhibition which you have to pay for. (reply)

raf Do they have a cloakroom where I can leave a suitcase. (reply)

↳Craig Hi Raf. They do have a cloakroom. Prices are £3-7 per bag depending on the size. Bear in mind that they don’t allow bags larger than 56x45x21cm to be carried around the gallery, so they might make you hand it over at the start. (reply)

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