Exhibition Road Quarter aids V&A’s “phenomenal” visitor numbers

Following the first anniversary of the Exhibition Road Quarter, the V&A have published their annual visitor numbers for 2017/18, which are up by 26% on the previous year.

The chair of the V&A, Nicholas Coleridge, described the figures as “phenomenal”, with over 4.4 million visitors to the V&A as well as Blythe House and the Musuem of Childhood.

The Museum’s Director, Tristram Hunt, said that the new entrance on Exhibition Road has helped this drive in visitor numbers and said that it was less intimidating than its counterpart on Cromwell Road. He continued, “All the data we have shows that it is much more attractive to non-traditional museumgoers… It is less, frankly, scary.”

The V&A said, “The success of the year [2017/18] was grounded in several milestone openings, including the realisation of the V&A Exhibition Road Quarter designed by Amanda Levete and her practice AL_A. Creating a new civic space for London, this was the V&A’s most significant architectural intervention for over a hundred years, and includes a new, world-class gallery, courtyard and an accessible entrance to the V&A from Exhibition Road that has transformed how visitors engage with and discover the museum.”

The figures have been widely reported by international press, including a headline article in The Guardian.

This follows the latest numbers at the AL_A-designed MAAT, which in April 2018 surpassed 750,000 visitors since the opening of the museum in Lisbon.