6/11 Victoria & Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum, aka "V&A", was opened in 1852 as a museum of manufacturing, and was moved to its current building in the early 1900s.  It has expanded over the years to include a wide variety of historical and artistic displays.  In the past, I have visited the incredible jewelry collection, which  includes more diamonds and gold than you can imagine, even the tiny crown made for Queen Victoria, and the sterling silver hall containing some bathtub-sized silver containers!  (Note that this is at the main V&A building in South Kensington.  Don't let your GPS send you to another one of their buildings, as I once did.)

On this visit, I visited the current display of adaptive devices for people disabilities and the Mideval and     Collection.  The museum is free, so I will probably stop by and see the jewelry collection again and pick one other area--cannot see the whole thing at once!  

Below is the Design and Disability Display: 

 

 

This table included tools such as button hooks and modified items for use by people with limited hand use.  I could easily use some of them myself! 

 

 

This is actually in the middle of this museum, not the front entrance.  There is a shallow pool in this courtyard and places for visitors to sit and relax, as well as a cafe for food and drinks. 

 

 

Oops!  A couple of large school groups arrived, so they had fun wading in the pool and doing some splashing!   School does not get out for the summer in the UK until July 22!

 

 

The building itself if pretty impressive, but I took just a few photos of it.  

 

 

A just a few photos of the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery. 

 

 

The fine handwork in the art on these pieces was incredible!   

 

 

These last two photos are samples of the vestments worn by priests over 500 years ago.  Many had gold or silver threads, and it is amazing they have survived.  

 Onward to the nearby Natural History this afternoon!  I'll try to keep up with posting, but it is not easy.