A LONDON museum has set out what it plans to do with a world-leading photography archive controversially transferred from Bradford.

The Science Museum Group sparked outrage last year when it announced a deal to transfer the National Media Museum’s Royal Photographic Society collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

Now the V&A has revealed more details about the new photography centre it will create to display some of the 270,000 photographs, 26,000 publications and 6,000 pieces of camera-related equipment which make up the collection.

The museum said the transfer, when added to its existing exhibits, cemented its position as one of the world’s most important photography collections.

Martin Barnes, senior curator of photographs at the V&A, said: “The transfer of the RPS collection is a catalyst for a dramatic reimagining of the way in which photography is presented at the V&A.

“It will enable a major expansion of spaces, programme and infrastructure, creating a world centre for our visitors to enjoy, as well as an accessible resource for academic research and scholarship.”

The new extension will more than double its photographic display area.

Designed by David Kohn Architects, it will open in two phases beginning in autumn 2018.

There will be a teaching and research space, a browsing library, a studio and darkroom and a new digital resource for photography enthusiasts around the world.

The RPS collection includes:

- The world’s earliest photographic images made in the 1820s as well as pioneering colour photographs

- Cameras and equipment associated with leading photographers

- Photographs by renowned British photographers such as Sir Don McCullin, Martin Parr and Mark Power

The RPS collection hadn’t been on permanent display in Bradford, although items had been available to view by appointment.

The transfer of the images and artefacts - around ten per cent of the Bradford museum’s collections - was announced last year as part of a new focus on science and technology which would eventually culminate in the venue’s rebranding as the National Science and Media Museum.

At the time, it prompted an angry response from many, including one of the city's most famous sons, David Hockney.

Bradford South MP Judith Cummins accused SMG of running “rough-shod over the fears and wishes of local people”, Sir Eric Pickles, a former leader of Bradford Council, called the move “a disgrace” and local councillor Simon Cooke labelled it an “act of cultural rape on my city”.

But Dame Mary Archer, chairman of the Science Museum Group, had said the collection’s “many archive boxes have scant connections with the region and were visited by fewer than 500 researchers last year”.

Today, a spokesman for the National Science and Media Museum said: "We anticipate working very closely with the V&A over the next few years, not only in relation to our future exhibition programme but also on our major new development – the Sound and Vision Galleries."