Young V&A

Young V&A stands in Bethnal Green, part of London’s East End. The building began life in 1856 as a prefabricated iron structure at South Kensington, later moved and enlarged with red brick and mosaic panels designed by F. W. Moody. Its round-arched style once earned the nickname ‘Brompton Boilers’ because of its industrial look. Inside, the museum shows how childhood objects have been collected and displayed since 1872. The museum holds the United Kingdom’s largest collection of childhood-related objects. In 1974 the V&A director Sir Roy Strong turned it into a specialist Museum of Childhood. After a £4.7 million renovation finished in 2006, the entrance was rebuilt with red quartzite and brown porphyries by Caruso St John Architects. In 2023 it reopened as Young V&A, aiming to let everyone explore objects made for and by children. Visitors find three floors of galleries with toys, costumes and childhood equipment. Temporary exhibitions change regularly, and a learning centre sits on the lower ground floor. The building itself, Grade II* listed, still carries Moody’s mosaic panels showing agriculture, arts and sciences along its long sides.