V&A Museum Highlights: Small-Group Tour with a Historian
- 2h 30m
- Free cancellation up to 24h before
- Guided in English
- Instant confirmation
Highlights
This is more than a checklist of the V&A's most famous objects. Led by a professional historian and limited to just eight guests, the tour is designed to be conversational, engaging and personal. We'll use masterpieces and unexpected objects alike to uncover the people behind the collection: who made these objects, who used them, what they meant in their own time and why they eventually found their way into a museum. From medieval religion and Renaissance art to Victorian design, theatre and everyday life, the tour connects objects to the wider history that produced them. You'll leave not only having seen some of the V&A's greatest treasures, but with a better understanding of this extraordinary museum and the stories it preserves.
Inclusions
What's included
- Small-group experience limited to 8 guests
- 2.5-hour guided tour with a professional historian
What's not
- Tickets to paid temporary exhibitions
Itinerary
Discover some of the V&A's greatest treasures and unexpected stories on a journey through 2,000 years of art and design. With a professional historian as your guide, encounter the medieval Thomas Becket Casket, a Victorian shopfront rescued from Bishopsgate, the Cast Courts and the magnificent Hereford Cathedral Screen. Marvel at the Ardabil Carpet, a masterpiece of Persian art, and explore the Silver Galleries. Discover Renaissance sculpture through Giambologna's dramatic Samson Slaying a Philistine and works by Rodin. Hear the colourful history of the Great Bed of Ware and encounter Victorian theatre through Henry Irving's extraordinary devil costume. The tour culminates with Raphael's monumental Cartoons, created as designs for tapestries commissioned for the Sistine Chapel. Along the way, discover the people who made, used and collected these objects — and how they became part of one of the world's great museums. Objects seen may vary due to gallery closures or availability.
Cancellation
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience starts, for a full refund.
Know before you go
- Meeting point
- Meet your guide outside the main entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road, a short walk from South Kensington Underground station. Your guide will be waiting outside the museum. Please arrive 10 minutes before the tour begins.
- Pickup
- Everyone meets at the starting point; there is no pickup.
- Ticket type
- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Group size
- Up to 8 travellers
- Operated by
- How to do History
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- This is a walking tour and involves periods of standing while exploring the galleries. The route can be adapted where necessary to use step-free access and lifts
How it compares in London
- Its from-price is 29% below the median of the 4793 experiences we list in London.
- Its length is typical for the group.
- The operator lists free cancellation on it.
About London
London mixes royal ceremony, world-class museums and riverside landmarks with distinct neighbourhoods, markets and parks to explore on foot.
The Thames threads the city together. On its banks stand the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, the Tower of London with the Crown Jewels, Tower Bridge and the long South Bank walk past the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe and Tate Modern. St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey anchor the older skyline, while glass towers crowd the financial district.
Top-ranked sights in London: St. Paul's Cathedral, Stonehenge, Tower of London.
Special offers in London
Was/now prices come from the operator, never from us.
