Browse around the V&A before Lunch - at The V&A Cafe (The Gamble Room)

Join us for lunch at The Gamble Room, the world's first museum café after browsing around the V&A Museum free exhibitions

In the 1860s, Londoners could take a horse-drawn cab out from central London to a distant area known as Brompton. There, at the South Kensington Museum (as the V&A was then named), they could enjoy the collections of applied art and science late into the evening thanks to the use of gas lighting in the galleries – a world first. The founding Director, Henry Cole, hoped the Museum would 'furnish a powerful antidote to the gin palace'. But visitors who made the journey would also be treated to another world first – a museum restaurant.

When entering the Museum from the garden, the public were greeted not by

galleries but by three arches with glass screen doors that led to a trio of refreshment rooms. Henry Cole's concept of a museum restaurant was seen as a way of encouraging people to come and enjoy culture. Cole had learnt about visitors' needs (tea and a bun or a hot meal) while managing the Great Exhibition in 1851. Most other museums did not invest in catering until the 20th century.

The original Refreshment Room was built in 1856. Described as 'hideously ugly' by a leading newspaper, it was a temporary structure to the east of the Museum's main building. Designed by Francis Fowke, the structure made a striking contrast to the rest of the museum, with its timber Tudoresque cladding. To critics' delight, the building was demolished in 1867.

The Gamble Room

Three new refreshment rooms – the Gamble, Poynter and Morris Room – were opened in 1868, although work continued on their decorations for many years. The first room, originally known as the Centre Refreshment Room and now as the Gamble Room, stood immediately opposite what was intended to be the main entrance. Besides enticing visitors with delicious smells and the welcoming sounds of gaiety, the room was wrapped in a glittering expanse of colourful ceramic, glass and enamel. Newspapers found the room "bright and cheerful ... It looks like one of the richly and gaily-adorned cafés of Paris".

Much of the decorative scheme for this room was planned by Godfrey Sykes, a highly respected young artist drafted in by Cole. But after Sykes' untimely death in 1866, the baton was passed to the designer James Gamble. The walls and large columns were covered in a variety of colourful ceramic tiles. The so-called 'majolica' tiles were made from pottery decorated with coloured lead glazes. Introduced to the public at the 1851 Exhibition, 'English tin-glazed majolica' imitated a process used since the Italian Renaissance. Other embellishments included a frieze of children or 'putti' (cherubs or cupids) harvesting food, dining and reading newspapers; grand mirrors in majolica frames; carved scenes with elephants and camels surrounding the doors; and stained-glass windows to hide the (unsightly) kitchens, ice house and art school buildings beyond. The ceiling was decorated in enamelled iron sheets reminiscent of enamelled name-plates found at railway stations.

The luxurious materials were meant to dazzle, but they also served a practical purpose. They were selected primarily to resist fire, steam and food odour, as well as to make the dining room easier to clean. The iron ceiling plates were a hygienic, washable covering for an eating place and also formed a fireproof cell within the Museum. The Victorians were very conscious of the dangers of fire. It would have taken horse-drawn fire engines a long time to reach South Kensington, which was still a very rural place in the 1860s.