Victoria and Albert Museum

It was founded in 1852 with the profits of the previous year's Great Exhibition, to inspire designers and craftspeople, and is now the world's largest museum of decorative arts. It holds over two million objects, from couture gowns and jewellery to tapestries, furniture and ceramics.

Highlights are the Cast Courts, with full-size copies of Trajan's Column and Michelangelo's David, the Raphael Cartoons and the three rooms of the original 1868 café, decorated by William Morris and others, which were the world's first museum restaurant.