In the years directly following the 1857 opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the majority of buildings on the Museum site were inherited or temporary structures (see E.1321-1927). Pre-existing on the south-west part of the plot was Brompton Park House, which became partly used for the Art School, whilst erected as a temporary block on the east part of the site was the iron structure known as the Brompton Boilers, providing gallery space. These were linked by the temporary range seen in this watercolour of 1872: the ‘Junction’ building, designed by James Pennethorne, which provided offices, a library and a lecture theatre. By 1860 it had become very cramped: ‘we are packed as close as pigs at present’, reads a comment from the Museum’s first director, Henry Cole. By this time, Francis Fowke was working on an extensive scheme for highly-decorated permanent buildings that would provide far more space, of which the Residences range (the west side of the present Museum quadrangle) of ca. 1862 is visible in this watercolour. Further back can be seen the Science Schools (now the Henry Cole Wing), still in progress at the time this view was painted: built as a School of Naval Architecture to designs by Henry Scott, it became ready for occupation at the end of 1872 before being declared finished in 1874. Pennethorne’s building, having been reduced in size in the mid-1860s, would be demolished in the late 1870s to make way for the Art Library block (now the National Art Library). See also 2815 and 7927.2.