The Exhibition Road Courtyard (named as Sackler Courtyard between 2017 and 2022, then appearing as Exhibition Road Courtyard on maps) is a public courtyard that serves as an entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London . It is part of the V&A Exhibition Road Quarter entrance and expansion of the Museum, completed in 2017 and designed by architectural practice AL_A, the firm of architect Amanda Levete .
7-450: The courtyard opens out onto the street ( Exhibition Road ) through a perforated entrance gate. It's made of 11,000 handmade tiles, a reference to the V&;A's heritage as a world-leader in ceramic study, collection and preservation. It is the world's first porcelain public courtyard, and special purpose non-slip porcelain tiles had to be created for the project. The courtyard also features
14-899: A cafe and an oculus, with view down into the new performance hall of the Museum below. The courtyard was named Sackler Courtyard after the Sackler family , associated with the Purdue Pharma company accused of fuelling the opioid crisis in the US. Theresa Sackler , the chair of the Sackler Trust, sat on the V&A's board of trustees at the time the Courtyard was opened. In 2019 US photographer and activist Nan Goldin and her group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) held their first anti-Sackler performance protest outside of
21-723: Is a street in South Kensington , London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum , the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum . The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was held just inside Hyde Park at the northern end of the road. After the central road in the area, Queen's Gate , it
28-467: Is the second thoroughfare in what was once Albertopolis . It provides access to many nationally significant institutions, including: A design competition for plans of how to improve the street's design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . The competition was won by the architectural firm Dixon Jones for a shared space scheme for
35-580: The United States at this place in London, demanding that the museum “abandon the Sackler name”, remove signage at the institution linked to the family and stop receiving donations. Goldin led a group of 30 demonstrators in placing bottles of pills and red-stained “Oxy dollar” bills on the courtyard's tiled floor. At the time, the museum's director Tristram Hunt supported the family and refused to change
42-498: The name. He told a press conference "we’re proud to have been supported by the Sacklers." In 2022 the Museum bowed to the pressure and removed the name. No new name was announced at the time for the courtyard, but 2023 maps of the museum show the name Exhibition Road Courtyard in it. 51°29′49″N 0°10′24″W / 51.4969°N 0.1733°W / 51.4969; -0.1733 Exhibition Road Exhibition Road
49-412: The road and surrounding streets which would give pedestrians greater priority whilst still allow some vehicular traffic at a reduced speed. The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape. The scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics . Since the completion of the revised streetscape, its design has been criticised for increasing the accident rate in
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