The Duchess of Cambridge today opened a new exhibition gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
During a tour of the museum’s Exhibition Road Quarter’s new spaces, Kate was “wowed” by the world’s first porcelain public courtyard.
The area is lined with 11,000 handmade tiles at a staggering cost of £54.5 million.
It also includes a new entrance and an underground gallery.
Former MP, Dr Tristram Hunt, the V&A director, said: “The V&A have had connections with Kensington Palace going back to the 1850s.
"It was Prince Albert’s vision, and then Queen Victoria opened the V&A in 1899.
“She was wowed by the architecture, the courtyard of porcelain tiles, and she was really interested in the engineering - how we dug down 50 metres, and yet kept the walls upright and did not break a single piece of glassware or ceramics.”
He added: “It is a huge day for the museum. It has really revived our original mission - this notion of Albertopolis, spreading out into Exhibition Road, this high-tech science and art campus, linking us with the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the Goethe Institute, the Institut Francais, all of our friends and partners in South Kensington.”
Dr. Hunt also told her about the first exhibition in the underground Sainsbury Gallery, about opera, and said the museum’s Pink Floyd exhibition was still on.
“She said that sounded a very interesting show to come and see.”
As she arrived Kate, wearing a Gucci dress, was given a bouquet by Dr Hunt’s six-year-old daughter Lydia.
Amanda Levete, who designed the area, said the duchess was “stunned” because the sun came out as she arrived at the porcelain Sackler Courtyard.
“The courtyard was glistening, and the brightness of it just lights up the elevations of the V&A, and you see the museum in a completely different way. It feels very contemporary.”
Duchess of Cambridge visit to the V&A Exhibition Road Quarter
