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Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments.
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Overview
The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851 which was held just inside Hyde Park at the northern end of the road. It forms the central feature in an area known as Albertopolis.
It provides access to many nationally significant institutions, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, Natural History Museum (which incorporates the former Geological Museum), the Royal Geographical Society, Imperial College London (directly and via Imperial College Road), Pepperdine University Abroad and Jagiellonian University Abroad. The London Goethe Institute and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meeting house are also located on Exhibition Road.
Shared space
A design competition for plans of how to improve the street's design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The competition was won by the architectural firm Dixon and Jones for a shared space scheme for the road and surrounding streets which would give pedestrians greater priority whilst still allow some vehicular traffic at a reduced speed. The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape, and clearly draws inspiration from the work of Gordon Cullen's Townscape. The scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.