Anonymous. Plan of Museums and Schools at South Kensington c. 1860.

Lithographic plan of museums and schools at South Kensington in 1857 featuring the Brompton Boilers, the Art School and the newly constructed Sheepshanks Gallery, with a 'junction' linking the Schools and the Boilers.

Presented by Alan S. Cole, Esq., C.B.

This plan depicts the Brompton Boilers, the School of Design in Ornamental Art and a brick single-storey 'junction' linking these two sites designed by James Pennethorpe in 1857. This junction can be seen as a thin, long, rectangular corridor running east to west, and contained adminstrative buildings, a library and a lecture theatre for the Design School. This temporary structure was demolished in the 1870s, after director Henry Cole complained of its cramped space for staff members. Also depicted is the Sheepshanks Gallery, the first permanent structure and earliest surviving part of the V&A. This gallery was designed by Captain Francis Fowke to house a collection of paintings collected by John Sheepshanks, including works by Constable and Turner. Sheepshanks's hope was to create a "National Gallery of British Art". The Sheepshanks Gallery was also notable for its introduction of gas lighting to museums, which enabled the Gallery to remain open until late in the evening.

E.1515-1913