Victoria and Albert Museum in London
1 August 2016 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time: 10 minutes The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), London, is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as “Albertopolis” because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001. Since 2001, the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation programme, which has seen a major overhaul of the departments, including the introduction of newer galleries, gardens, shops and visitor facilities. read more…Royal Opera House in London
8 July 2016 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time: 12 minutes The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden in London. The large building is often referred to as simply “Covent Garden“, after a previous use of the site of the opera house’s original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel‘s first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. read more…Albertopolis in London
8 June 2016 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time: 6 minutes Albertopolis is the nickname given to the area centred on Exhibition Road in London, named after Prince Albert, spouse of Queen Victoria. It contains a large number of educational and cultural sites. It is in South Kensington, split between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster (the border running along Imperial College Road), and the area bordered by Cromwell Road to the south and Kensington Road to the north. The closest tube station is South Kensington, linked to the museums by a tiled tunnel beneath Exhibition Road constructed in 1885. The tunnel originally continued as a covered route to the south porch of the Royal Albert Hall via a second tunnel, subsequently used for a period as Imperial College’s shooting range, emerging into the arcades and conservatory of the former gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society. read more…The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich
23 May 2016 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, London, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time: 9 minutes The National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Greenwich in London, is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings form part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, and it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, and 17th-century Queen’s House. In 2012, Her Majesty The Queen formally approved Royal Museums Greenwich as the new overall title for the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Cutty Sark. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the National Maritime Museum does not levy an admission charge although most temporary exhibitions do incur admission charges. read more…Theme Week London – Covent Garden and Soho
7 October 2015 | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien | Rubric: General, Architecture, London, Shopping Reading Time: 14 minutesSoho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues. read more…