Back to normal: London's Victoria and Albert Museum resumes pre-Covid opening hours

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is to resume opening seven days a week from 4 April, following its current closures on Mondays and Tuesdays. The V&A was the only major UK national art museum to cut back on its open days, to save money when its self-generated income plummeted because of Covid-19 restrictions.

As predicted by The Art Newspaper, the V&A will also drop the requirement that visitors book a timed ticket for admission to its permanent collection.

Tim Reeve, the V&A’s deputy director, says that “we hope to put the past behind us”, with the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions: “We have decided to discontinue the practice of asking visitors to pre-book free tickets for general admission”. The museum will also resume late Friday evening opening, until 10pm.

The other major national museums are likely to follow suit in the spring, although this has not yet been announced. At present visitors to the British Museum, National Gallery and Tate are encouraged to book free tickets online. Although necessary when social distancing was an important issue, this discourages visitors at a time when museums need to increase their numbers.

A British Museum spokesperson says that “we review the situation regularly and have no plans to change these arrangements at present”. At the National Gallery a spokesperson says that ticketing options are being “considered” for the permanent collection; at present free tickets can be obtained online or on-the-door.