The V&A introduces a £5 admission fee

The Victoria and Albert Museum introduced a £5 admission charge on 1 October, replacing the earlier voluntary contribution, a suggested £4.50 which in 1992/93 netted £850,000 and in 1995/96, £800,000. In the first seven days of charging, the V&A had 18,000 visitors, compared with 21,500 the previous week and 17,000 the week before that. Income from tickets represented about double the average weekly level of voluntary contributions. It is too early to draw firm conclusions from a single week’s figures, but initial results suggest ticket sales might bring in an extra £800,000 a year. But set against this will be any loss of income from shops and restaurants if visitor numbers do fall.