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 Victoria and Prince Albert.

The V&A is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area known as "Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial, and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. As with other national British museums, entrance is free.

The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha) and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient history to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. However, the art of antiquity in most areas is not collected. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world.

The museum owns the world's largest collection of post-classical sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance sculpture being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in the world.

Since 2001 the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation programme. The new European galleries for the 17th century and the 18th century were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815. The Young V&A in east London is a branch of the museum, and a new branch in London – V&A East – is being planned. The first V&A museum outside London, V&A Dundee opened on 15 September 2018.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Henry Cole was the museum's first director, and he was also involved in the planning. Initially the V&A was known as the Museum of Manufactures. The first opening to the general public was in May 1852 at Marlborough House. By September the collection had been transferred to Somerset House. At this stage, the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the opening Exhibition were purchased by the museum to form the kernel of the V&A collection.

By February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and the museum was renamed South Kensington Museum. In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper, at the request of Cole, produced a design for the museum, but it was rejected by the Board of Trade as too expensive. The current site was occupied by Brompton Park House, which was extended in 1857 to include the first refreshment rooms. The museum's café was the first in the world to provide a catering service for researchers and guests, and "the original 19th-century decór [of] the Refreshment Rooms ... remains largely intact."

The official opening by Queen Victoria was on 20 June 1857. In the following year, late-night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting. In the words of museum director Cole gas lighting was introduced "to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes". To raise interest for the museum among the target audience, the museum exhibited its collections on both applied art and science. The museum aimed to provide educational resources and thus boost the productive industry.