The history of the Exhibition Road area

The establishment of the Exhibition Road institutions were the vision of Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert and the Executive Committee of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. The profits from the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, enabled the Commission to purchase land adjacent to Hyde Park to build a grand scheme intended as a continuation of the aims of the Exhibition. The scheme would build a single or number of public institutions for the study of the arts and sciences. It was described by Prince Albert as ‘an establishment, in which, by the application of Science and Arts to Industrial pursuits, the industry of all nations may be raised in the scale of human employment.’ The institutions would educationally and culturally benefit the mass population, not just the elite. Exhibition Road has been at the world forefront of public access to culture and learning ever since.

Over a number of years, partly with the support of the Royal Commission, and partly through further institutions purchasing or building premises in the locality, the area has become home to a number of national museums, cultural institutions and a university. The motto Arts and Science, that the Commissioners gave to the area can be still be seen on a number of the older buildings in the Exhibition Road area, including the Royal Albert Hall and the V&A.

The South Kensington Museum, now the V&A, was the first institution funded by the Royal Commission to be opened to the public in June 1857. At the time the museum encompassed the Department of Arts and Sciences, now known as the Department for Education and Skills, the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. The Science Museum also has its origins in the South Kensington Museum.

A number of landscaped gardens were developed by the Royal Horticultural Society where other temporary exhibitions were held. This is now the site for Imperial College London. The Royal College of Mines, opened in 1852, merged with other educational institutions and the Department of Science, located at the South Kensington Museum, to form what is now Imperial College. The National Training School for Music and the Royal College of Organists became what is now the Royal College of Music. The Hall of Arts and Science, which later changed its name to the Royal Albert Hall, was completed and opened in 1871. The Natural History Museum opened to the public in 1883, having merged with other ethnographic and science museums to transfer its collections from the British Museum in Bloomsbury to its current site. In 1912 the Royal Geographical Society moved into the area from Saville Row.

Since this time numerous other national and international institutions have chosen to make the area around Exhibition Road their home including the English National Ballet, the Ismaili Centre, the Goethe-Institut, Institut français, the Royal Parks (which includes Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens) and the Serpentine Gallery.

In line with Prince Albert’s aim of enabling the population to better themselves through access to cultural institutions, the area continues to be home to a flourishing and wide-ranging creative and academic community, welcoming people of all ages and backgrounds.

Exhibition Road Cultural Group’s Vision of giving access to excellence, creativity and value in culture and education, and to develop the talent that is in everyone remain almost the same as the original Exhibition Road vision.