Celebrating science, technology and art
Albertopolis
Unlike the millennium dome, the Exhibition of 1851 was huge success. Some of the money was used to buy the land which is now occupied by the Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music, Imperial College of Science and Technology and the three South Kensington Museums.
This area is sometimes called Albertopolis because of the leading role of Prince Albert in the whole project
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The first museum in Albertopolis was established in 1852 as the Museum of Manufactures. This museum moved to site of the V & A in 1857 and was renamed the South Kensington Museum. It then set out to build a collection to tell the history of art and design.
In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new building designed to give the Museum a grand facade and main entrance. It was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Science Museum
The Science Museum has collected exhibits to illustrate scientific, technological and medical change since the eighteenth century. It grew out of the South Kensington Museum but its main building was not opened until 1928. It now has more than 300 000 objects in its care.
The Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum has both the Life galleries and the Earth galleries. It is the Earth galleries which open into Exhibition Road. This museum spun off from the British Museum and moved to South Kensington as a result of a campaign led by Richard Owen, the scientist who first named the dinosaurs.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 18 January 2007
