Things to do in London #5 - The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A as every self respecting Londoner would call it, is an amazing Museum. It was always my favourite as a child as they had a great costume gallery. Sadly when we visited the costume gallery was closed for refurbishment. But I was blown away by some of the new exhibits that have been re done. The jewellery was a knock out, both in the content and the display. You were not allowed to take any photographs due to value of the collection so here is a picture off their website.

There was also a collection of miniature mosaics, with the pieces being so small that they looked like paintings and an exhibit of design through the 20th century which was fascinating. This is all housed in a very large Victorian building, some of which has be restored and some like the jewellery exhibit has been updated.  The V & A is situated by the South Kensington Tube station and just down the road from Harrods in Knightsbridge. The building is set around a courtyard with a large pond and some grass which had it been a warmer day would have been nice to sit out in.

The cafe at the V&A is also spectacular it is located in the V&A's original refreshment rooms, these three rooms formed the first museum restaurant in the world and were intended as a showpiece of modern design, craftsmanship and manufacturing. They are absolutely stunning, each one being very different  we had to have lunch there.

Amazingly we did not take any pictures of the food, I had roast pork with crackling which was delicious, but the star of the day was the meringues.  These pictures do not do them justice, they were the most spectacular meringues I have ever seen.

They were very large and smooth, but when you cut into them they were chewy and sticky with a crisp outer coating, not like the dry Styrofoam meringues you often find.

And they were served with real clotted cream!  Dessert really does not get any better than that. I can highly recommend the cafe at The V&A in fact I can highly recommend the cafes at all the museums and art galleries in London, you can get some of the best food at reasonable prices and often in very spectacular surroundings.