What is it?
The V&A East Storehouse is perhaps London’s best new museum, found in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Inside, you will find rows and rows of steel shelves, filled with treasures that make up the V&A’s vast archive, that is now on display for all the see.
Purpose-built to house more than 1,000 archives from the museum’s collection, comprising more than 250,000 objects and 350,000 books, the storehouse promises to offer a peek behind the scenes to show how a working museum goes about cataloguing artefacts, from vintage footie kits and Glastonbury festival ephemera to a collection of samurai swords. Oh, and did we mention it will house the David Bowie Centre, a massive archive of more than 80,000 objects related to the music icon? We can’t wait to have a good old poke when it opens slightly later, in September.
It is a ‘working museum’, meaning it doesn’t have permanent displays (it doesn’t really have proper displays at all, just shelves), and every one of its objects is free to be moved around by the people at work behind the scenes at any time.
Why go?
This is a genuinely radical new museum offering, and it could just change the way we think about viewing artefacts forever. There are no lengthy gallery texts, instead just library-like barcodes and the odd QR code, meaning it’s all down to your own interpretation. The randomness is part of the fun, and the objects get to speak for themselves.
Don’t miss:
The six prized large objects that have been built into the walls of the museum, some of which haven’t been on display for decades due to their size. Highlights include the world’s largest Picasso, a recreation of the 1970s Robin Hood council estate, and a full 1950s kitchen.
When to visit:
Daily 10am-6pm, with late night openings every Thursday and Saturday until 10pm.
Time Out tip:
Want to see something from the archive up close? Use the free Order an Object service to request anything you like to be brought to you at an appointment of your convenience. Visitors will have their pick of more than half a million creative works, spanning fashion, furniture, photography, ceramics, musical instruments and more.