Young V&A

The Museum opened as the Bethnal Green Museum of Science and Arts in 1872, and in 1974 became the V&A Museum of Childhood. Now known as Young V&A, it was built on part of the remnants of Bethnal Green, previously a larger village green that today remains as Bethnal Green Gardens and Museum Gardens (q.q.v.), which had been partitioned in 1825 to build St John's Church at Bethnal Green to designs of Sir John Soane. In 1868 4.5 acres of the Bethnal Green land was purchased for the site of the Bethnal Green Museum, which was to be built with the proviso that what land was not built on was to be public recreation ground. The origins of the museum here lie in the Great Exhibition of 1851 in South Kensington, profits from which enabled land in that area to be purchased to realise Prince Albert’s scheme for a ‘village’ of museums and similar institutions. The first museum in South Kensington was housed in a temporary structure designed and built c.1856/7 by Charles Young & Co., a utilitarian iron-framed structure with 3 aisles, corrugated iron walls and curved roofs that was nicknamed The Brompton Boilers for its supposed resemblance to a series of steam boilers. In 1865, when the South Kensington Museum had moved into larger, permanent premises, the museum’s management proposed splitting the iron building into three parts and offering these for a nominal sum as premises for district museums elsewhere in London. Local philanthropists in Bethnal Green had been lobbying for a trade museum in the area and Bethnal Green became the only respondent to the offer of the iron building. As a result the Brompton Boilers Museum was re-erected here as Bethnal Green Museum, with brick walls replacing the corrugated iron and numerous improvements to the interior space.

The architect was J W Wild whose full scheme was never carried out for lack of money but which had included a complex frontage, a cloister enclosing a garden, entrance porticos, clock tower, curator’s residence, refreshment room and library (his original design was published in The Builder in 1871). The exterior of the building had a series of mosaic panels representing agriculture, science and art designed by students at the Art Training School at South Kensington. The building was completed in 1872 and was officially opened as the Bethnal Green Museum by the Prince of Wales on 24 June. Although the intention had been for it to be run by local people, this did not take place and it remains part of the Victoria and Albert Museum (q.v.), which had gained its name in 1899, when new South Kensington Museum buildings were opened by Queen Victoria. Although some exhibits related to children from 1925 onwards, it was not until 1974 that the museum became dedicated as a Museum of Childhood.

The bronze statue of a boy, ‘The Eagle Slayer’ by John Bell of 1847 (1851?), was erected to the north of the gardens in front of the museum in 1927. The public gardens called Museum Gardens adjoining the museum transferred to the Metropolitan Board in 1887, separated from the museum grounds by Museum Passage, with old railings remaining on the museum side. Museum Passage is the route of an old path across Bethnal Green (Horwood, 1813), which in 1872 was planted with the present plane trees to form the division between the Green and the Museum. Prior to the recent refurbishment works to the building, the gardens in front and to the sides of Bethnal Green Museum consisted of lawns, with a number of rose beds in front of the building, plane trees on the perimeter, the Eagle Slayer statue to the north, with old railings and two gateways leading to the semi-circular roadway in front of the building; picnic tables were set out each side.

In the early C21st the V&A drew up a Masterplan for the Museum, and refurbishment and substantial improvements have been undertaken in two phases, completed in 2006, to designs by Caruso St John Architects, which included a substantial extension along the museum front to form a new, fully accessible, entrance leading to temporary display facilities. The semi-circular area at the front was remodelled to accommodate gently sloping paving to create ramped access to the building. A strip of ornamental planting was created along the front adjacent to the boundary railings, and new external furniture installed in the grass to the north. The Eagle Slayer has been restored but was re-located inside the museum, although the plinth remains in the gardens. The Museum refurbishment won a RIBA Award and CABE Festive Five Award, both in 2007.

In May 2020 the V&A Museum of Childhood closed for a major £13m revamp of the interior of the building, in order to create a more forward-thinking museum. Renamed Young V&A, it was officially opened by The Princess of Wales, Patron of the V&A, before re-opening to the public on 1 July 2023. Local schoolchildren, parents and teachers played an important part in the project, participating in co-design and co-production workshops in which they worked with the architects and Young V&A team to reconceive how the building could be used, designed key architectural features, contributed ideas for the displays and exhibition programme, and participated in making new commissions for the galleries. Bethnal Green-based architects AOC led the design, working in collaboration with base build architect De Matos Ryan and the Young V&A team. The museum's reconfigured central area, known as Town Square, is surrounded by three large permanent galleries housing the collection, called Imagine, Play and Design. Other new facilities include a temporary exhibition space, learning studios and a workshop on the lower ground floor.