V&A WWII Battle Scars
the museum that kept its wounds
Jagged shrapnel damage deliberately left on the V&A's facade, with an inscription honouring the wartime dead.
Free to visit · South Kensington · South Kensington · SW7 2RL
Opening: Exterior viewable any time
The grand stone facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum carries scars that most visitors hurry past on their way to the free galleries inside. The pockmarks and gouges in the masonry were caused by shrapnel and bomb blasts during the Blitz, when this corner of South Kensington was hit hard.
Rather than smooth them over, the museum chose to leave the damage and add an inscription recording that it was deliberately preserved as a memorial to the enemy action of those years and the people who endured it. It is free to find, a quiet and dignified reminder of the war embedded in the very walls of one of the world's great museums.
Getting there: On the exterior of the V&A in South Kensington, by the station.
Best time to go: Daytime, walking the museum's Cromwell Road or Exhibition Road frontage.
Insider tip: Look along the lower walls of the Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road frontages for the rough shrapnel scars and the small inscription. It is a moving free detail to seek out before you head inside the equally free museum.
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide