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Part of the V&A 's strong identity is to do with the beautiful inner courtyard, a place where people can be individuals unworried about hurly burly of the annonomous street which this opening appears to totally draw into. There's enough chewing gum on the street outside already. Put a glass caf next to this and it will only accentuate the pedestrian nature of this opening. Again something which the V&A pertently is not. The V& A is place in which one needs to time to slowly transport oneself to all the fantastic and intelligent mature displays. The artefacts it holds were not designed with children in mind but grown humans to the heights of their abilities out of profound love and respect for their art, not for their individual rights of expression to the exception of any other soul. It seems to me that it is too easy to destroy this for the sake of a voyeuristic caf in a hope of herding people in. I would say that there is a greater need than ever before to protect the V&A from any kind of pedestrianisation in this age of carelessness. Personally I do not agree with many of the changes so far, the notion of ancient treasures of Chrisendom as they used to be displayed at the heart of the museum being the bedrock of Western Civilisation after the Romans has been replaced by the shop of wanton commercialism. There is no longer a historical feel of development from meagre rare resources of the Byzantine era to the Renaissance flowering intersperced with Gothic that used to be. It was an artistic wander through other worlds - which now seems removed some steps further away to a mere intellectual experience. Pull in the pedestrian and I fear the young will suppose that the entire place is just that, and nothing more, if they are not given the chance to view it differently to other common place museum experiences. The Screen as it is protects the integrity of the museum, sure it looks ok opened up, but it is about WHAT the screen does that counts in this instance. Modern interventions are so common place and predictable these days it seems vital to retain the original concept.

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