Architecture Study Rooms

V&A and RIBA Architecture partnership update

Last updated: 13 January 2026

After more than two decades of fruitful collaboration, the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership will come to a conclusion at the end of May 2027. The Architecture Gallery and the RIBA Study Room at V&A South Kensington will close, and the RIBA Collections stored at V&A South Kensington will be moved temporarily to The National Archives in Kew, south-west London, where they will be accessible through our interim service while the RIBA’s long-term programme for the House of Architecture is implemented. 

The spaces leased by the RIBA must be returned to the V&A by the beginning of June 2027. As it will take some months to decant the stores and offices, our collections will be packed and moved from autumn 2026 onwards.

To achieve the decant, our team will have to prepare collections to move, plan the move around the complex logistics of a major national museum, and ensure that our collections safely reach their new interim home.

We expect demand for bookings in the Study Rooms to be high over the coming months. Please plan ahead and request your booking with as much notice as possible.

Timetable

To help our users and stakeholders plan ahead, we provide the following provisional timetable, which we will continue to update as the moves proceed.

• From 30 September 2025: We are closed to new loan requests from other museums or institutions until after the collection moves are completed. 
• From 26 June 2026: The RIBA Study Rooms at V&A South Kensington will be closed to researchers. Our last day of service at this site will be Thursday 25 June 2026.
• From July 2026: Our Drawings and Archives team will continue to respond to email enquiries, but responses may take longer than usual. Additionally, it may not be possible to fully answer enquiries about collection items during their time in transit. Our digitisation-on-demand service will also be paused until we reopen at our interim location. Existing digital photography of collections items will continue to be available via RIBApix.
• Autumn 2027: We expect to open our interim service in the RIBA Study Room at The National Archives, Kew. At this point we will be able to resume our digitisation-on-demand service and loans to other museums and institutions. An opening date and booking information will be announced in due course. 

From time to time, and in particular during periods of collections moves, we may also need to limit access to collections held at our outstore, as our team will be fully committed at the V&A site. Prospective researchers will be advised if this is the case.

Thank you for your patience and support during the period of packing and moves.

Arrangements until July 2026

Admission

Entry is free and everyone is welcome. You will be asked to complete a reader registration form on arrival.

The easiest route to the study rooms is via the Exhibition Road entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Go through the shop and take the lift to the third floor.

Food and drinks are not permitted in the study rooms and bags must be left in the free lockers provided.

Access to materials

We ask that you request the materials you wish to consult in advance of your visit so that we can retrieve them for you. Due to the size of our collections, some items are stored offsite and may require a visit to our outstore, by prior appointment.

For access to the books, journals, and photographs in our collections, please check the latest information during the temporary closure of our library at 66 Portland Place.

Accessibility

Step-free access is available via the Exhibition Road entrance to the V&A and by lift to the third floor. Guide dogs are welcome.  

Revisiting the Collections

Our items have been collected and catalogued over almost two centuries, with some items dating back to the 15th century. Some materials and descriptions contain outdated and offensive language or need further contextualising. We are working to address this and to ensure that our collections and descriptions are appropriate to our audiences today.

Photography and reprographics

Photography is permitted for most of the items in the collection for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study. Please read our photography policy before visiting.  

We also offer a digitisation-on-demand service for drawings, manuscripts, photographs and material too fragile to be copied. Please contact us for further information about our reprographics services.

Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is available to readers.