Paris1972-Versailles2003

And here is another jewel that was left in the closet and not told in my blog. This is a great omission as it was one of if not our favorite museum in London. The place is very chic, nice, we love it and came back twice during our family stay there. Oh this is the Victoria & Albert Museum or V&A of London. Let me tell you a bit briefly on it, hope you enjoy it as we did. For all its avant garde collection!

The Victoria and Albert Museum, often abbreviated “V&A”, is a national art museum located in London, in the district of South Kensington. It is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, as well as sculpture, housing a permanent collection of more than 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and is named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It is a fabulous museum to visit !!!

The V&A museum was conceived in the aftermath of the Universal Exhibition of 1851, it first bore the name of South Kensington Museum then was renamed of its current name in 1899, after fifty years of work. First element of Albertopolis, a set of museums and educational institutions which aimed to bring education, industry, science and art together in the continuity of the ideas developed during the Great Exhibition of 1851, it was built on land acquired thanks to profits made during this last event. Dedicated mainly to industry and craft products, it was also in charge of a didactic mission with English artists and decorators, at the time when the Art & Craft movement was developing The collections of the India Office were integrated in 1880, to extend the interest which had been expressed around civilization and Indian art as it was presented in the gallery of India at the Crystal Palace in 1851 and – above all maintain the adhesion , then particularly enthusiastic, of the British to the imperial project.

The V & A covers 5 hectares and has 145 galleries. Its collection covers 5,000 years of art, from Antiquity to the present day, from cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The ceramic, glass, textiles, costumes, silverware, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculptures, prints and engravings, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most complete in the world.  The museum notably has the largest collection of post-classical sculptures in the world, the collections of Italian Renaissance objects being the largest outside of Italy. The collections from East Asia are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramic and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is among the largest in the Western world.

It is a huge place to see it all and like I said we came back twice and still not seen it all. I will tell briefly the sections below, you need to see it, period.

The art collection from Asia of the V&A has more than 160,000 objects, one of the largest existing. The V&A contains more than 19,000 objects from the Islamic world, ranging from the beginning of the Islamic period 7C at the beginning of the 20C. The Museum’s South and Southeast Asian art collections are the most complete and the most important in the West. They include nearly 60,000 objects, including about 10,000 textiles and 6,000 paintings, and the diversity of the collection is immense. The collections of the Far East include more than 70,000 works of art from Asian countries mainly China, Japan and Korea. The collection includes approximately 1,130 British and 650 oil paintings from Europe, 6,800 watercolors, pastels and 2,000 British miniatures, of which the museum holds the national collection. The V&A sculpture collection is the most comprehensive collection of post-classical European sculptures in the world. The collection consists of approximately 22,000 objects covering a period ranging from approximately 400 to 1914. It has the largest and most complete collection of ceramics and glass in the world, with more than 80,000 objects from around the world. Each populated continent is represented. The jewellery collection, which has more than 6,000 objects, is one of the most comprehensive jewellery collections in the world. It includes works from ancient Egypt to the present day, as well as drawings of jewellery on paper. The museum houses the National Art Library, a public library containing over 750,000 books, photographs, drawings, paintings and prints. It is one of the largest libraries in the world dedicated to the study of fine and decorative arts.

In 2004, the V&A and the Royal Institute of British Architects opened the first permanent gallery in the United Kingdom, covering the history of architecture with exhibitions using models, photographs, elements of buildings and original drawings. The costume collection is the most complete in Great Britain, containing more than 14,000 outfits and accessories, mainly dating from 1600 to the present day. This collection of over 45,000 works includes decorative ironwork, forged and molded, in bronze, silverware, armor, pewter, brass and enamel ,including many examples of Limoges enamel. The textile collection includes more than 53,000 copies, mainly from Western Europe, although all the populated continents are represented and which dates from the 1C AD to the present day. It is the largest collection of this type in the world. The collection contains more than 500,000 images dating from the advent of photography, the oldest dating from 1839.

As you can read , it has beautiful collection in many domaines and most are the best in the world at least Europe. It is very educational for the customes and arts all over and during different periods. My whole family enjoyed it very much and it is in our agenda for a future visit.

The main webpages here are the official Victoria & Albert museum : Victoria & Albert Museum of London

And the tourist office of London on the V&A Museum: Tourist office of London on the V&A Museum of London

And there you go folks another dandy in London, UK, a wonderful city to visit and another dot in my world map. We enjoy the V&A museum and hope you enjoy the post enough to make you come to see it too. For us , its a must in London.

And remember, happy travels , good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And why not stay in cosmopolitan London. We spent our time well there and saw plenty , all wonderful family souvenirs. I am amazed that I have left these beautiful monument out of my blog for so long. Anyway, this is make up time. I like to tell you a bit more on the Imperial War Museum of London.

The Imperial War Museum is a national British military museum established in 1917 during the reign of George V, King of England. and today consists of five sites, including three in London. The Imperial War Museum London is the network’s main and most visited museum and is located in the central part of the former Bethlem Royal Hospital. It concerns WWI and WWII, it also shows the horrors of Nazism.

Originally housed in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, the museum opened to the public in 1920. In 1924, the museum moved to space in the Imperial Institute in South Kensington, and finally in 1936, the museum acquired a permanent home that was previously the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Southwark on Lambeth Road. The hospital consisted of a range of buildings 580 feet long with a basement and three storeys, parallel to Lambeth Road, with a central entrance under a portico. he original hospital building is now largely occupied by corporate offices. The 1966 extension houses the library, art store, and document archives while the 1980s redevelopments created exhibition space over five floors.

An anecdote is that with the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk in May/June 1940, the British Army’s shortage of equipment saw eighteen of the museum’s artillery pieces return to military service!!. While closed to the public the museum’s building was used for a variety of purposes connected to the war effort, such as a repair garage for government motor vehicles, a center for Air Raid Precautions civil defence lectures and a fire fighting training school. In 2011, the museum rebranded itself as IWM, standing for “Imperial War Museum” .In April 1984, the Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public as a branch of the museum.

There are eight departments responsible for the various aspects of the Imperial War Museum’s collections: The Department of Documents, The Art Department; The Department of Exhibits and Firearms; The Department of Printed Books; The Film and Video Archive, The Photograph Archive, The Sound Archive, and The Department of Holocaust is in the History of Genocide (Department of Holocaust and Genocide History). A bit more into them below

The Imperial War Museum’s original collections date back to the material amassed by the National War Museum Committee. The present departmental organisation came into being during the 1960s as part of Frankland’s reorganisation of the museum. The museum’s documents archive seeks to collect and preserve the private papers of individuals who have experienced modern warfare. The archive’s holdings range from the papers of senior British and Commonwealth army, navy and air officers, to the letters, diaries and memoirs of lower-ranked servicemen and of civilians.

The Imperial War Museum’s art collection includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and works in film, photography and sound The museum’s Film and Video Archive is one of the oldest film archives in the world The archive preserves a range of historically significant film and video material, including the official British film record of the First World War. he museum’s Photograph Archive preserves photographs by official, amateur and professional photographers. The collection includes the official British photographic record of the two world wars

The Imperial War Museum’s exhibits collection includes a wide range of objects, organised into numerous smaller collections such as uniforms, badges, insignia and flags (including a Canadian Red Ensign carried at Vimy Ridge in 1917, a Union flag from the 1942 British surrender of Singapore, and another found among the wreckage of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks), as well a piece of the towers; personal mementoes, souvenirs and miscellanea such as trench art; orders, medals and decorations (including collections of Victoria and George Crosses); military equipment; firearms and ammunition, ordnance, edged weapons, clubs (such as trench clubs) and other weapons, and vehicles, aircraft and ships

The Imperial War Museum’s library is a national reference collection on modern conflict, and holds works on all aspects of warfare, including regimental or unit histories (such as 789 rare German unit histories from WWI technical manuals, biographical material and works on war’s social, cultural, economic, political and military aspect. he museum’s Sound Archive holds 33,000 sound recordings, including a large collection of oral history recordings of witnesses to conflicts since 1914. The IWM has an online database, listing the various items which make up the IWM Collections. In some cases, there are images of the item, or contemporary photos, which can be shared and reused under a Creative Commons Licence.

A wonderful must place to visit me think, and let me give you some webpages to help you plan your trip here

The official Imperial War Museum’s :Imperial War Museum’s

The tourist office of London on the Imperial War Museum’s: Tourist office of London on the IWM

Like I said, my family really enjoy the visit here, and we recommended to all. If you follow history, this is library like no other on wars perils. The Imperial War Museum is an educational must place to visit for all. Hope you enjoy as we did

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

So here I am taking you across the Manche and into jolly England and its capital city London. I have some posts on the city which I have visited on business trips several times and once with the family. It has souvenirs for all of us.

One of the symbols we look for it was Big Ben and I like to tell you a bit on it with our pictures.

Big Ben is the nickname for the 13.5-ton large bell on top of the Elizabeth Tower, the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, which is the seat of the Houses of Parliament in London. It is a symbol of the city of London. Only people who live in the UK can visit the clock tower after obtaining permission (so was told never tried to go up). The building faces the Thames, between Westminster Bridge and Westminster Abbey . Initially, the name of this bell was The Great Bell. The origin of the name Big Ben is uncertain.

The first bell was manufactured in 1856. To be able to transport it to the clock tower, it was installed on a carriage drawn by 16 horses. It split a few months after its installation, a second bell was then molded in 1858. In October of the same year, the bell was moved 61 meters to the belfry of the bell tower in 18 hours. On May 31, 1859, the famous clock entered service.

The frequency of the pendulum is adjusted to 2 fifths of a second per day, by adding (to accelerate) or removing (to slow) old 1 penny coins dating from the time when the British monetary system was not decimal. The sound of the Big Ben bell is due to the fact that it also cracked in 1859, barely two months after its official installation, which gives it a very distinctive tone. For technical reasons, the bell is oriented so that the hammer does not strike at the location of the crack. The famous chime air that marks the hour is called Westminster Quarters.

On three occasions, the Big Ben bell was rung for national mourning, at the national funeral; 68 times for the funeral of Edward VII in 1910, 70 times for that of George V in 1936, and 56 times for that of George VI in 1952. Each sound of the bell represents a year of their lives. Technically, Big Ben strictly refers to the largest bell on the clock, while the clock itself is the Great Westminster Clock and the tower was renamed in 2012 Elizabeth Tower on occasion of the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.   Since August 21, 2017, the tower is under renovation until 2021.

Here is my usual webpages to help you plan your trip here even if just to look at

Big Ben clock in the palace of Westminster, House of Parliament: Big Ben at the Parliament of UK

Tourist office of London on Big Ben: Tourist office of London on Big Ben

As said ,this is one of the main attractions of London and a must to see at least once. Afterward it loses its magic a bit me think. Hope you enjoy the post and do see Big Ben at London

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!