6 Burlington Gardens

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The facade of the University of London building, later the Museum of Mankind.

Plan dated 1867. The main entrance is at the top.

6 Burlington Gardens is a building in Piccadilly, London that has been used by various London institutions in its history, including the University of London, the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts.

The building was designed by Sir James Pennethorne between 1867 and 1870 as headquarters for the University of London. It occupied the northernmost section of the former garden of Burlington House. It was a grand building, but not especially large. The University of London is a federal university and this early central building contained little besides examination halls and a few offices; the premises of several of the constituent colleges were larger. The university vacated the building in 1899.

From 1970 to 1998 it became the Museum of Mankind, an outpost of the British Museum housing its ethnography collections, because of lack of space in the Museum's main building in Bloomsbury.

In circa 2005 the building was brought back into use by the Royal Academy, the tenant of the original wing of Burlington House and the wing which lies between the two buildings. It is used mainly by the Royal Academy Schools.

On 29 August 2006, the building was damaged by a fire, but there was no loss of Academy artworks - it was being prepared for a future exhibition.[1]