Couples say they often get together in romantic museums

Museum and gallery-goers voted London's Victoria and Albert as the most romantic venue, in the survey published for Museums and Galleries Month.

Nearly a fifth of 500 respondents said they had fallen in love while in a museum or gallery.

Other favourites included the National Portrait Gallery, Tate St Ives and the Tower of London.

Manchester Art Gallery came fifth in the survey, carried out on the 24 Hour Museum website, followed by Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Aston Hall, Birmingham and Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.

Virginia Tandy, Director of Manchester Art Gallery and co-chair of Museums and Galleries Month 2006, said galleries and museums had a "special romantic atmosphere".

National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne told the Daily Telegraph there was a "long history" of romance in museums.

"Galleries were regarded as a place where a woman could go unchaperoned and, therefore, it was a place where certain people who wanted to meet unchaperoned ladies would go," she said.

"Not only are the exhibits on show but there is a strong element that people are as well."