Our study rooms at the Victoria and Albert Museum offer access to the drawings, archives, manuscripts, objects, and artefacts in the RIBA Collections.
Opening hours
Open Wednesday and Thursday, by appointment. Please email drawingsandarchives@riba.org to book. We recommend contacting us at least 14 days in advance of your proposed visit.
Upcoming summer closure: The Study Rooms will be closed for our annual stocktake for the weeks commencing 25 August, 1 September, 8 September, and 15 September 2025. As our opening days are Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Study Rooms will reopen on 24 September 2025.
V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership update
As announced in 2022, after more than two decades of fruitful collaboration, the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership will come to a conclusion at the end of May 2027. The Architecture Gallery and the RIBA Study Room at V&A South Kensington will close, and the RIBA Collections stored at V&A South Kensington will be moved to an alternative, publicly accessible interim location while the RIBA’s long-term programme for the House of Architecture is implemented.
The spaces leased by the RIBA must be returned to the V&A by the beginning of June 2027. As it will take some months to decant the stores and offices, our collections will be packed and moved from autumn 2026 onwards.
To achieve the decant, our team will have to prepare collections to move, plan the move around the complex logistics of a major national museum, and ensure that our collections safely reach their new interim home.
With our imminent move we expect demand for bookings in the Study Rooms to be high over the coming months. Please plan ahead and request your booking with as much notice as possible.
Timetable
To help our users and stakeholders plan ahead, we provide the following provisional timetable, which we will continue to update as the moves proceed.
- Summer closure 2025: Please note our upcoming annual stocktake closure detailed in the opening times section above.
- From 30 September 2025: We will be closed to new loan requests from other museums or institutions until after the collection moves are completed. We will make a further announcement about when we can resume considering loan requests in due course. The exact date for this will be dependent upon our interim location.
- From 26 June 2026: The RIBA Study Rooms at V&A South Kensington will be closed to researchers. Our last day of service at this site will be Thursday 25 June 2026.
- From July 2026: Our Drawings and Archives team will continue to respond to email enquiries, but responses may take longer than usual. Additionally, it may not be possible to fully answer enquiries about collection items during their time in transit.
From time to time, and in particular during periods of collections moves, we may also need to limit access to collections held at our outstore, as our team will be fully committed at the V&A site. Prospective researchers will be advised if this is the case.
Interim Access Arrangements
Work is currently under way to confirm the interim location for the RIBA Collections currently held at V&A South Kensington. Our intention is to provide public access there for individuals and groups from late 2027. Further information will follow in the coming months.
Thank you for your patience and support during the period of packing and moves.
Last updated: 23 June 2025
Admission
Entry is free and everyone is welcome. You will be asked to complete a reader registration form on arrival.
The easiest route to the study rooms is via the Exhibition Road entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Go through the shop and take the lift to the third floor.
Food and drinks are not permitted in the study rooms and bags must be left in the free lockers provided.
Access to materials
We ask that you request the materials you wish to consult in advance of your visit so that we can retrieve them for you. Due to the size of our collections, some items are stored offsite and may require a visit to our outstore, by prior appointment.
For access to the books, journals, and photographs in our collections, please check the latest information during the temporary closure of the RIBA Library at 66 Portland Place.
Accessibility
Step-free access is available via the Exhibition Road entrance to the V&A and by lift to the third floor. Please let us know if you have any additional access needs, you can contact us by emailing drawingsandarchives@riba.org.
Revisiting the Collections
Our items have been collected and catalogued over almost two centuries, with some items dating back to the 15th century. Some materials and descriptions contain outdated and offensive language or need further contextualising. We are working to address this and to ensure that our collections and descriptions are appropriate to our audiences today.
Photography and reprographics
Photography is permitted for most of the items in the collection for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study. Please read our photography policy before visiting.
We also offer a digitisation-on-demand service for drawings, manuscripts, photographs and material too fragile to be copied. Please contact us for further information about our reprographics services.
Wi-Fi
Free Wi-Fi is available to readers.
Image: 1860 sketched elevation for a decorative frieze for the South Kensington Museum (V&A), RIBA Collections.
