London Notes

Anyone who regards design and the impulse to decorate as one of the more trivial human activities should take a walk through the Victoria and Albert museum. The displays, selected from its collection of over 4 million pieces, provide ample evidence that the impulse to create beautiful things and to decorate even the most ordinary objects has always been, and continues to be, an integral part of what it means to be human.

The practical goals of education and inspiration have been the driving forces of the museum since its inception. Late openings, made possible by gas lighting, were instituted in 1858 so that the museum could, in the words of Thomas Cole, the museum's first director, "ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes".

The objects on display range from the ordinary (tables, chairs, cutlery, china) to the monumental. The cast rooms, which we were fortunate to see just before they were closed for renovation, contain incredible casts of objects impossible or impractical to acquire and include sculpture, tombs, doorways, altars, even Trajan's column! (Note: The casts have preserved sculptural details which have been damaged on the original column by many years of acid pollution.)

top: Side Table, about 1740, from Longford Castle, Wiltshire.
left: Detail of one of the exterior gates.

A walk through the museum takes you from rooms wonderfully packed with display cases to open and airy rooms such as the gallery above.

left and right: Appropriately, "Inspiration" and "Knowledge" stand on either side of the main entrance.
centre: One of the 'Cast' rooms. Everything you see here is a cast.