V&A East Storehouse - The Insider

I highly recommend a visit to the V&A’s new East London outpost, a working museum store that’s open to explore

On a wet Saturday we jumped on a train to London and then got lost walking from Stratford station. But the effort was well worth it as the new V&A East Storehouse is an intriguing alternative to a conventional museum

Window section from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing development

Covering four levels and bigger than 30 basketball courts, the giant warehouse (originally part of the 2012 Olympic broadcasting complex) was re-imagined by Diller Scofidio+Renfro with support from UK-based architects Austin-Smith:Lord. There are over 250,000 objects, ranging from furniture to fashion, in storage plus 350,000 library books. Not everything is on display obviously as this is primarily a storage facility, but the architects have embraced this by making the shelving and packaging visually appealing and there are mini curated displays on the sides and ends of storage racking giving a broad visual of the eclectic V&A collection

15th century Torrijos Ceiling – from the floor below you can admire the intricate decorations

Some pieces are so big they have been cleverly built into the structure of the storehouse itself. These include a double height concrete and glass section from the, now demolished, Robin Hood Gardens social housing development. There’s an elegant marble colonnade that once stood outside a bathhouse in Agra Fort – you view this by looking down on it through a glass floor. And the Torrijos Ceiling, built around 1490, has been presented over two floors so that you can look up into the ceiling from below but also view the intricate wooden exterior structure

On weekdays you can also watch conservation work in action as many of the workrooms have glass walls and, when you’re done browsing, there’s a nice cafe that does an excellent carrot cake

Getting to V&A East Storehouse

Admission is free and the storehouse is open daily: 10.00 – 18.00. Thursday and Saturday: 10.00 – 22.00

V&A East Storehouse main entrance is on Parkes Street, E20 3AX. I got lost in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, so suggest you avoid this by using what3words crate.super.ranks