The Exhibition Road Courtyard (named as Sackler Courtyard between 2017 and 2022) is a public

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

that serves as an entrance to the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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 Amanda Jane Levete (born 1955) is a British architect and the principal of AL_A. While she worked as a partner at Future Systems, the company was awarded the 1999 Stirling Prize for their work on the Lord's Media Centre. She has also received s ...

. The courtyard opens out onto the street (

Exhibition Road Exhibition Road 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, London, Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, Lon ...

) through a perforated entrance gate. It is made of 11,000 handmade tiles, a reference to the V&A's heritage as a world-leader in

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

study, collection and preservation. It is the world's first

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

public courtyard, and special non-slip porcelain tiles had to be created for the project. The courtyard also features a cafe, and an oculus that gives a view down into the new performance hall of the museum below.

Controversial name

The courtyard was named Sackler Courtyard after the

Sackler family The Sackler family is an American family who owned the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and later founded Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical dr ...

, associated with the

Purdue Pharma Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company (1892–2019), was an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was sold to Arthur Sackler, Arthur, Mortimer Sackler, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler in 1 ...

company accused of fuelling the

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse or abuse, and Drug overdose, overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs called opiates or opioids since th ...

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 Nancy Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores in snapshot-style the emotions of the individual, in intimate relationships, and the Bohemian style, bohemian LGBT subcultural communities, especially dealing w ...

and her group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) held their first anti-Sackler performance protest outside of 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 Tristram Julian William Hunt, (born 31 May 1974) is a British historian, broadcast journalist and former politician who has been Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum since 2017. He served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Sto ...

supported the family and refused to change 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.

References

{{coord, 51.4969, -0.1733, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Victoria and Albert Museum Squares in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Sackler family Porcelain rooms

Controversial name

See also

References