Much of the London we enjoy today was shaped during Britain’s glorious Victorian Age. This was the age of Queen Victoria, who ruled for 64 years, until 1901.

The Victorian Age was an exuberant time. The Neo-Gothic Albert Memorial reminds London how Victoria’s beloved husband, Albert—the only one who called her “Vicky”—did so much to promote technology and culture during that industrial boom time. The statues at the base herald the great accomplishments of Britain’s 19th-century glory days.

Albert died in 1861. His wife, Queen Victoria, was possibly the world’s most determined mourner. She wore black for the standard two years—and then tacked on 38 more for good measure.

Taking mourning to new heights, she required that the city’s once colorful finials be painted black—as they remain to this day. The queen built grand monuments to her Albert, like the Royal Albert Hall, still a thriving venue for concerts, from classical to pop.

And this neighborhood, nicknamed Albertopolis, remains a collection of grand cultural centers and museums.

The Natural History Museum—complete with a dinosaur’s welcome in its Evolution Garden was purpose-built in the 1870s to showcase a vast collection of wonders from the natural world. Charles Darwin holds court as the bones of a massive whale named Hope—who washed ashore in Ireland a century ago—greet visitors. The museum’s a hit for families and students, especially with its animatronic T-Rex.

Next door, the immense Victoria and Albert Museum is named for the royal couple who did so much to support the many triumphs of their day. Like so many of London’s top attractions, it’s free. The V&A grew out of the Great Exhibition of 1851. This first World’s Fair, housed in a temporary glass and steel “people’s palace,” celebrated the Industrial Revolution and the greatness of Britain. The theme of the museum’s Britain Galleries is style, taste, and design from 1500 through 1900.

Four hundred years of English fashion history are corseted into a series of exquisite display cases. This painting, from around 1600, is of a woman wearing this actual garment. It was typical formal daywear: linen and silk embroidered with silver thread. Nightcaps were fashionable among aristocratic men. This tortoiseshell and silver toiletries kit shows that in 1640, careful grooming was as important as dressing magnificently.

In the 1670s shoes were called “straights,” and there was no difference between right and left. Whalebone and lacing kept torsos flat and long. Fans were a tool for flirting. It was said, while a man’s weapon was a sword, a woman’s weapon was a fan…and the fan did more damage. In the 1740s a rich woman’s court dress was an extravagant display of wealth—even if it meant she entered rooms sideways. And the huge collection illustrates the far reach of the British Empire, from its exquisite Indian art to its sumptuous hall of Chinese artifacts.

The Hall of Casts is filled with plaster copies of Europe’s greatest statuary, ideal for London’s 19th-century art students who couldn’t afford to travel. They could compare the Renaissance genius of Donatello, whose David was Europe’s first male nude since Roman times, and that of Michelangelo a century later, with his more heroic David. And, around the back, you’ll find that this David came with an accessory.

As this was the famously prudish Victorian Age, when aristocratic ladies would come to visit they’d hang this fig leaf on the statue for modesty.