Closely corresponding with the work as executed, this design by Francis Moody is for the mosaic floor in the corridor between the Architectural Courts (now the Cast Courts, Rooms 46a-b), an area of the Victoria and Albert Museum that was begun in 1870 and opened in 1873. Aside from variations in the geometric borders, the design essentially extends the mosaic pattern that Moody had devised for the landing of the West or Ceramic Staircase (now Staircase I), from the masks to the sea creatures to the squared composition. However, whilst the latter was made by the firm of Minton, Hollins, the mosaic in the corridor between the Architectural Courts was the work of female convicts in Woking prison. Approved by the Home Secretary and nicknamed ‘Opus Criminale’, this unusual method had been suggested in 1869 by Captain Du Cane, a prison official who that year became surveyor-general of prisons, chairman of the convict prison directors and inspector-general of military prisons. The women, following the supplied designs, were responsible for making up mosaic panels for floors in a number of parts of the Museum. These included the cloister beneath the Sheepshanks Gallery (now the Museum bookshop), the Science Schools (now the Henry Cole Wing), and part of Bethnal Green Museum (now the V&A Museum of Childhood).