Design Museum attracts record 250,000th visitor

A quarter of a million people have visited the new Design Museum since it opened its new premises in Kensington, London, less than 12 weeks ago — that's the same number as the museum received during a year at its former home. The world's leading museum which is devoted to contemporary design in every form from architecture and fashion to graphics, product and industrial design is well on the way to surpass its annual target of 650,000 visitors. Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic partly attributed the success to the new venue in the former Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street — three times as big as its old home in Shad Thames — and the scrapping of the entry fee. He said: “Shad Thames was great, but there was a feeling it was for other designers. We are saying this stuff is too important to just be speaking to ourselves about it and we wanted to do for contemporary design what Tate Modern did for contemporary art.” The museum was set up by designer and Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran in 1989. Around 1,000 items from its permanent collection are on show in the free Designer Maker User exhibition, including a food mixer, a scrubbing brush and a road sign. Forthcoming exhibitions this year include one on post-revolution Russian architecture. Find out more information about the museum here.