Blitz damage, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Tucked into the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the bomb damage memorial bears the scars of the Blitz. Left intentionally unrepaired, the pockmarked stone tells its own story of the night in 1941 when German bombs rained down on London, striking even this sanctuary of art and design. Rather than erase the wounds, the museum preserved them as a quiet reminder of resilience, survival, and the cost of war. Visitors pause at the site, tracing the chipped stone with their eyes, recognizing that history is not only displayed in galleries but written into the very fabric of the building.