Exhibition venue in the Victoria and Albert Museum
View showing the gallery's 1950s mahogany cabinets and 1860s architectural features (pictured in 2024)
The Prince Consort Gallery (Room 110; V&A Gallery 110) is an exhibition space in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington, London. It was originally used to display "many of the most interesting and costly possessions" in the museum's collection, and subsequently, to store parts of the V&A's textile archive. The gallery is now used for special events and exhibitions, and occasionally, as a lunchroom for school groups and museum staff.
Design for end of Prince Consort Gallery by Godfrey Sykes (1880s)
The V&A was a "pet project of Prince Albert [...] who had seen firsthand that British manufactured goods were not always top of the class."[3] After its construction in the second half of the 19th century, the Prince Consort Gallery originally displayed "many of the most interesting and costly possessions of the Museum, in enamel, gold, and silversmith's work, jewellery, watches, clocks, &c."[4][5] The objects displayed in the South Kensington Museum, as the V&A was then known, were "not just to delight connoisseurs, but to [...] educate British designers, manufacturers and workers in good taste and technical prowess."[3]
Following the Second World War, during which many of the museum's holdings were dispersed to other locations for safekeeping,[6] the gallery was never restored to its previous configuration and remained closed to the public. Initially "Room 110 was boarded up" and served as a storage space,[a] then, in the 1950s, the gallery was "lined with beautiful mahogany cabinets" which "held parts of the museum's [...] textile collection".[8][7] Eventually, it became a lunchroom for museum staff and large school groups, and was also used to host special events.[8][7]
Since 2012, the Prince Consort Gallery has been "part of a [...] redevelopment and restoration scheme intended to convert it back into a public gallery space." More recently, it has been a used as a venue for the London Design Festival (the V&A has also been described as the "true epicentre" of the festival itself),[9][10][11][1] as well as the location for various public and private events hosted by the museum, diverse artist in residence programmes, and occasional exhibitions.[12][13]
Location and characteristics
Room 110 is a 35 meter long gallery,[14] similar in proportion to the adjacent Gilbert Bayes Gallery (Room 111)[15][8][7] It is situated between the two Leighton galleries (Rooms 102 and 107) on Level 2 of the museum.[16][17] The ensemble of these galleries "were constructed chiefly of brick, somewhat profusely ornamented with terra-cotta, and were built from the designs of Captain Fowke".[4] Architectural detailing and decorative elements by Godfrey Sykes such as a mosaic portrait of Prince Albert, from whom the Prince Consort Gallery takes its name, can still be seen.[2][b]
A museum visitor interacts with a Tsugaru Nuri lacquer theremin by Ini Archibong (showing 1950s mahogany cabinets and original tile floor details)
Both sides of the space are clad in 1950s mahogany casework consisting of 102 wall cabinets that conceal most of the room's original architectural features, detailing, and window openings (some of which detail is still partially visible when the cabinet doors are ajar).[8][12] The space is covered by a still visible Victorian era iron-framed structure partially clad with coffered ceiling panels, and is entered through a now concealed ornate barrel vaulted foyer.[7] The original decorative motifs of the 19th century tile floor are largely intact, though also partially concealed by the gallery's wooden cabinetry.[5][citation needed]
Exhibitions and events
Beatie Wolfe's The Art of Music in the Digital Age
Since the gallery's conversion back into a public space, its use has been wide-ranging, varied, and diverse. In 2019, the V&A staged Behind the Curtain with British painter Francis Hamel, during which the artist was invited to install a studio and paint in the gallery. Hamel worked on portraits of a number of well known personalities, in situ, while the public were invited to view his process.[20][21] Other artist interventions have included Beatie Wolfe's "series of world-first designs" titled The Art of Music in the Digital Age,[22][19] and Canadian artist and lighting designer Flynn Talbot's transformation of the space into an immersive installation which he called a Reflection Room (2018 and 2017 respectively).[23][24][25][14]
The wide variety of events and exhibitions staged in the Prince Consort Gallery has ranged from the display of complex experimental technologies to artisanal handcrafts;[10][18] and from the work of well known creators to underrepresented groups.[28][29][30][13] In 2019 the Sony Design Studio installed an autonomous robotic AI construction called Affinity in Autonomy which explored how "the relationship between humans and technology will evolve";[31][32][33][10] to a multi-disciplinary display of hand-crafted works titled Unstruck Melody by Nirbhai (Nep) Singh Sidhu in collaboration with the arts collective Without Shape Without Form.[34][35][28] During the 2024 London Design Festival, the museum hosted the Craft x Tech Tohoku Project, an "experimental and artistic project that explores how aesthetic sensibilities embedded in Japanese craft can be reimagined" through the lens of contemporary design and technology.[36][37][38][1][18]
Oitama Tsumugi kimono by Gentaro Nitta pictured in the Craft x Tech Tohoku Project exhibition (2024)
Also in 2024, the "rarely-seen Prince Consort Gallery [was] the only space in the museum entirely dedicated to" Taylor Swift's Songbook Trail exhibition.[26][27][39][40][13]
As part of the museum's ongoing artist in residence programme (in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, London), the German artist and graphic designer Helmut Völter was invited in 2016 to spend six months working and studying in the museum's nearby photography archives (Rooms 100 and 101), at the conclusion of which time he presented a new work titled The Cabinets.[8] The exhibition used the gallery's own features as part of an installation that combined works from the museum's archives displayed in compositions together with Völter's own writing, photographs, and research.[12]
↑ "After the Second World War, Room 110 was boarded up to serve as storage space, but is currently (April 2012) part of a major redevelopment and restoration scheme intended to convert it back into a public gallery space."[7]
↑ "The mosaic portrait of Prince Albert which lent the gallery its nineteenth century name of 'The Prince Consort Gallery', may still be seen above the entrance to Room 102."[7]
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