Tours and Talks

Develop the professional skills you need to work in today's museum sector. Led by expert staff, these intensive part-time courses use V&A case studies to provide unique insights into their collections, work and best practice.

Discover how the Museum examines, conserves, preserves and prepares collections for display in the public galleries and exhibitions. This volunteer-led tour of the paper, books, sculpture and textiles conservation studios is an opportunity to see the fascinating work which goes on behind the scenes.

Located in Kensington Gardens, it is one of London's most ornate ornaments. Public tours are available between March and December.

Sign up for a course at Imperial where a wide variety languages are offered at different levels as well as an expanding range of Arts, Humanities and Science courses.

Come along to a unique programme of talks and debates to learn more about the intriguing Kensington Palace.

Serpentine Mobile Tours offer visitors an interactive gallery experience providing access to additional content, including artist interviews and curator tours, from the Serpentine’s internationally acclaimed Exhibition and Architecture Programmes.

Get out and about this summer with the Mayor’s new London Curriculum Family Explorer Trails which includes the 'Creative Quarter' in South Kensington. Taking you on a circular trail starting at the V&A, up Exhibition Road and through the Royal Parks.

Take a self-guided tour and explore how London’s quarter for the arts and sciences was created. Discover more about it's great institutions and magnificent buildings.

Guided tours offer the inside story of the Royal Albert Hall, taking you on a fascinating journey through its unique history, incredible architecture and legendary performances.

Get closer to the Museum and its incredible collections with our wide range of free or paid-for bespoke tours.

The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk takes visitors through four of the most beautiful parks in the world, including Hyde Park and Kensington Palace.

Join expert science educators for a behind the scenes look at the Museum's fascinating zoology spirit collection.

Are you big on museums, but short on time? NHM's knowledgeable visitor assistants have designed just the dinosaurs tour for you. It will introduce you to some of the Museum's most famous and imposing specimens. One hour

The trail will include creative looking, thinking and drawing activities as you explore the museum and exhibitions. The trail asks the user to consider what it's like to be a designer, maker and user of some of the wonderful objects in the collection. Takes 30 - 40 minutes.

V&A Secret Seekers is a new mobile game for families, launched to coincide with the opening of the V&A's Exhibition Road Quarter. Let eight characters from the V&A's history guide you on an exciting treasure hunt to uncover some of the secrets of the Museum.

Download the free Time Explorers app and try the new Digital Mission at Kensington Palace for children and their families.

Since its inception in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has been steeped in geopolitical controversies, even allowing Australia to enter in 2015. Beyond raising questions about identity, and national boundaries, can Eurovision offer us a new understanding of what it means to be ‘in Europe’?

Watch the Venture Catalyst Challenge's final six teams pitch their ground-breaking ideas and innovations to industry-leading judges. The Grand Final follows an intense seven-week programme of masterclasses, business coaching and pitch training for 35 teams.

The Grantham Institute and Royal Meteorological Society host a National Meeting to discuss carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Come to this meeting to hear about the climatic conditions in the Pliocene, how we know this, and what it tells us about our modern climate. Open to all.

The rise in new technologies allow for greater flexibility in how and where we choose to work. Today, more people are working from home than ever before. Designers are responding to these changes in working styles by creating products and systems that merge home and office life.

Ghana has declared 2019 as a Year of Return for diasporan Africans whose ancestors were victimised by the brutalities of slavery. To mark this occasion, the museum is hosting a talk moderated by architect Elsie Owusu.

During the Museum’s Friday Late opening, a professional designer or illustrator sets a sketching task inspired by the museum’s permanent collection or most recent exhibition. Participants are then invited to tour the museum and sketch what excites them about contemporary design and architecture.

Stanley Kubrick was fascinated with all aspects of design. He collaborated with the leading designers of his generation, from Hardy Amies to Saul Bass, Eliot Noyes, Milena Canonero, and Ken Adam to create costumes, film posters, props and sets for some of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

Stanley Kubrick's experimental and powerful use of music distinguished his films. To coincide with the Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, the museum is hosting an evening of activities celebrating the music in Kubrick’s films and exploring his enduring influence on musicians today.

This month’s sketch will focus on the theme of Drawing with Shapes. Led by illustrator and animator Steven Wilson, the event will begin with a short presentation by Steven on his work and approach to illustration. After this, you are invited to explore the Design Museum’s galleries and to listen to live music in the atrium.

Join this British Sign Language tour to gain a unique insight into the work and methods of 20th century film-maker Stanley Kubrick. Drawing on the director’s vast archive, this tour will focus on the design stories behind his iconic films.

Join this Multisensory Tour to gain a unique insight into the work and methods of 20th century film-maker Stanley Kubrick. Drawing on the director’s vast archive, this tour will focus on the design stories behind his iconic films.

Stanley Kubrick moved to Hertfordshire during the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey. He lived there for 28 years until his death in 1999. This talk explores Kubrick’s love affair with London and how he managed to morph the city into something entirely new in each film.

This two-day conference invites citizens, designers, academics, journalists and educators to consider what design ethics, and design as an ethical discipline, should look like in the 21st century. Focused on particular examples including migration; suicide; decolonization and the politics of the body.

John Akomfrah is a renowned artist and filmmaker, whose works are characterised by their investigations into memory, post-colonialism and often explores the experiences of migrant diasporas globally. The discussion will be on the architecture of memory, migration and multiculturalism.

Are you determined to reduce the impact of your holidays on the planet? If so, join our panel of experts as they discuss the various approaches you can take and answer the question: what does it mean to travel well?

The Universe, as documented through the Society’s Collections, ranging from early depictions of the moon and stars in 16th century Cosmographia to images documenting NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1970s, and beyond.

Join a panel discussion to recognise International Women’s Day. An inspiring panel of female leaders will focus on how they have overcome challenges to become leaders in their fields, what drives their success, and how they work to promote diversity and inclusion.Free but booking required.

Jim Al-Khalili and a panel of energy experts join the Museum to discuss the future of nuclear fusion and solar power, following a screening of the absorbing documentary 'Let There Be Light'.

Hosted by the Science Museum and Imperial College London, this one-day academic conference will explore the 150-year history of chemistry in South Kensington. The conference will feature sessions and tours celebrating the institutions which helped make chemistry a key facet of intellectual and public life in this area. Free but limited tickets.

A rare opportunity to see treasures and ephemera from the Colour Reference Library, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of colour-related publications in the world. Visitors will be introduced to a range of historical systems and schemes for representing and organising colour, including hand-coloured materials, and these will be contrasted with commercial samples and ephemeral schemes devised after the advent of synthetic dyes. From the ‘White of the Human Eyeballs’ to the ‘Mauve Potato Flower’, this session will explore the challenges of describing and organising colour and the long quest to pin it down.

A rare opportunity to see treasures and ephemera from the Colour Reference Library, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of colour-related publications in the world. Visitors will be introduced to a range of historical systems and schemes for representing and organising colour, including hand-coloured materials, and these will be contrasted with commercial samples and ephemeral schemes devised after the advent of synthetic dyes. From the ‘White of the Human Eyeballs’ to the ‘Mauve Potato Flower’, this session will explore the challenges of describing and organising colour and the long quest to pin it down.

The Goethe-Institut London is delighted to invite everyone to Europe Actually, their series of events with a focus on the European common identity. Highlights at the end of March include a public live radio broadcast, poetry, a towel art convention and a starry get-together.

Join the guided walks around the exterior of the unique group of studio-houses built by Victorian artist and President of the Royal Academy, Frederic, Lord Leighton and his contemporaries. Discover the fascinating story of how this corner of Holland Park became synonymous with a group of the leading artists of the late Victorian period.

Alison Wilding and Frances Richardson will be in conversation, chaired by Iwona Blazwick OBE (Director, Whitechapel Art Gallery).

Calling all crafters: take part in a workshop led by crochet experts TOFT, then tour the Natural History Museum's behind-the-scenes tank room. In this unique workshop you will use Kerry Lord's new mini kit to make your own version of Archie, the 8.62-metre-long giant squid specimen at the Museum.

Part of Imperial Enterprise Month, the Dyson School Open House will bring you face-to-face with leading and emerging design engineers through talks, installations and exhibitions of work. So come and be immersed in visions of the future, sustainable design, audio experiences and more.

Berlin based towel artists Hen & Mai show how towel folding is nerve calming and good for coping with feelings of loss. This uplifting, site-specific theatre performance by artist duo Quast & Knoblich will give you the right technique to fold your misery away. At Lancaster Gate Hotel.