The history of museum goes back to 1837, when the government established a school of design in London. Britain was then the world’s leading manufacturer, but other countries were leading the way in design. For the education of its students, the school had a small teaching collection. It included contemporary decorative art and copies of historic sculpture and painting.
The Green Dining Room
The success of the Great Exhibition in 1851 turned this small museum into a more ambitious enterprise. The exhibition was held in a revolutionary glass building (the ‘Crystal Palace’) and showed manufactures from all around the world. Although it attracted around six million visitors and made a massive profit, the exhibition also highlighted the deficiencies in British design.
As a result of the Great Exhibition, the small teaching collection of the school of design was renamed the Museum of Manufactures. Henry Cole, one of the organisers of the exhibition, became the first director and began to expand the collections.
At the same time, the profits from the Great Exhibition were used to buy a large expanse of land south of Hyde Park. This was to house a whole series of institutions devoted to art, science and technology. The Museum of Manufactures moved to this site in 1857 and became known as the South Kensington Museum.
Henry Cole’s aim was to improve British manufactures by educating designers, producers and the public in the principles of good design. The South Kensington Museum welcomed visitors from all levels of society, not simply those with money and leisure. It was also the first museum in the world to provide gas lighting, so people could come in the evening after work, and the first to have a restaurant, so visitors could relax and have refreshments.
A contemporary writer described the museum as a ‘People’s Palace’. Entry was free, so everybody – from young apprentices to wealthy middle-class families – could enjoy the displays.