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The entrance front to the V&A on Cromwell Road was designed by the architect Sir Aston Webb. He won the 1891 competition to design an extension and frontage to the south of the existing museum. By the time building work began in c.1900 Webb had largely redesigned his scheme, replacing his central turreted tower with a distinctive open corona, which is hidden here under scaffolding.

The V&A has a long and complicated history which is reflected in the complex site that now houses the museum. It first began its life in Marlborough House in 1852 as the Museum of Manufactures, an instructive collection of plaster casts to complement an art school.

In 1857 the collection and the attached School of Design moved to the current site and the museum was renamed the South Kensington Museum. At first the museum occupied temporary buildings, before eventually moving in to the Italian Renaissance style structure designed by Captain Francis Fowke.  

Following many name changes for the governmental department responsible for both the Museum and the School of Design, the museum finally adopted its current title of the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1899, when Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone to the new grand entrance front designed by Webb.

The V&A site today also includes the building formerly known as the Huxley Building, or later the Henry Cole Wing, which was designed by General H.D.Y. Scott with J. Gamble and J.W. Wild to house the Science Schools. This Renaissance style building in red brick and terracotta is currently being partly refurbished to house the new Sackler Centre for Arts Education. To find out more about current and past building projects at the V&A revisit Albertopolis online at the end of the year.