Like an IKEA Warehouse for the Art Crowd — Why the V&A's New, 'Self-Serve' East End Outpost Is Our Latest Obsession
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It's not quite Night at the Museum, but the V&A's new opening of its storage facility — the V&A East Storehouse — is about as 'behind-the-scenes' as it gets. Located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, the storehouse stows over 250,000 artifacts and spans four stories over an area bigger than 30 basketball courts. It was created by New York-based architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro with the support of Austin-Smith:Lord with one goal: turning the storied institution's archive inside out. And boy, they have succeeded.
Here, visitors can see the V&A's vast collection up close, without the usual glass barrier, making the freshly unveiled location, which opened to the public for the first time last weekend, one of the most exciting city additions for assiduous visitors of design exhibitions in London. To my surprise, the set-up feels genuinely transgressive; I almost gulp when I find myself eye to eye with a multi-hundred-year-old, gold-leafed saint.
I ask Technical Manager Matthew Clarke — who supported the installation of the objects, including the seven-ton, 15th-century gilded wooden ceiling from Toledo's now-destroyed Altamira Palace, the Kaufmann Office, Frank Lloyd Wright's only complete interior outside of the US, and a stunningly preserved marble colonnade from 1600s India — whether he is concerned about people touching the very expensive, fragile works. "It is a worry because the V&A East Storehouse is something that's so 'not museum,'" he admits. "But it's giving people agency and trust, and I think that it will bring more ownership of the collection."
Among the pieces collected here, his favorite one is a section of what was once Poplar's Robin Hood Gardens, a Brutalist residential complex designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1972, which, by the time its demolition started in 2017, housed over a thousand residents within its intricate, maze-like plan. "It was the first thing that came into the storehouse in 2021," Clarke recalls. "We installed that whilst the space was still a construction site." Now an integral part of the center's architecture and thought-provoking public program (visitors get to learn more about it and the stories of those who call it their home as they wander around the site), it is yet another proof of the V&A East Storehouse's efforts to democratize art, and take people along on that journey.
The new Order an Object scheme goes one step further. Anyone may reserve up to five items from the collection and examine them in the storehouse's glass-walled workroom at the appointed time. The public appetite is huge; over 1500 objects and 300 appointments were booked in the first ten days since it started operating. Meanwhile, the queues outside of the sleek V&A East Storehouse building stretched nearly half of its silhouette over the opening weekend in a palpable, contagious manifestation of enthusiasm that bodes well for the future of the cultural hub.
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I am anything but surprised, and I am not alone, either. "Where else would you encounter suits of armor, Sage cloths, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, fizzles, chandeliers, and motorcycles in one place next to each other?" Diller Scofidio + Renfro's co-founder, Elizabeth Diller, jokingly asks. Tapped with the demanding task of doing justice to the eclecticism and vastness of the V&A's collection, the studio "decided to lean into the delirium about the strange taxonomies, the mediums, the wide variety of sizes, the myriad of materials, the broad range of geographies and historical periods" reunited among its ranks.
Part brutalist industrial facility, part sci-fi-esque cabinet of curiosities, the result is, to say the least, transportative. In one moment, you feel moved by the plethora of masterpieces stacked up on the shelves all around you. The next, you'd bet it's you that's moving, as the glassy, checkered floors proceed to reveal what lies beneath your feet, as well as above you (vertigo sufferers, I warned you), starting from its cinematic first floor.
A stern brow, wrinkled Roman soldier. Mesmerizing textiles stretching back to the dawn of time. A pair of latex hot pants manufactured in Derbyshire in 1992, and soon, an entire section centered around David Bowie's belongings, artistry, and life, are only a handful of the curiously fascinating pieces waiting to be observed at the V&A East Storehouse. The coolest thing about it yet? That its appeal doesn't stop there, because if you're hungry, the fun has only just begun.
Feeding the crowds of foodie museum goers is London Fields' beloved independent café and pastry heaven, e5 Bakehouse, which opened within the V&A East Storehouse last week to coincide with its launch. The vibe here is, like for the rest of the location, joyful, colorful, and fun, without ever renouncing the irreverent, pioneering approach to art and design that has made the V&A a revered destination worldwide — let alone the freshest British produce and fragrant cakes, bread, and croissants.
The brainchild of architecture studio Thing, the spot has instantly earned itself an entry in our next roundup of interiors-conscious cafés in London. It isn't hard to see why. Opening up to the public with a series of squashed square chairs in spring green, rust red, orange, and lime, with just as many Eames-style rocking ones placed in front of its panoramic window lookouts, e5 Storehouse unfolds into a sun-lit lounge section, followed by an airy, blooming-with-flowers dining area that, dotted in warm Douglas fir furniture and teeming with people, still retains its calm.
Needless to say, coffee is fantastic, too, with all beans roasted in-house, ensuring your hot drink is not too sweet or frothy. The A Lel Chuang blend, named after the Rwandan village where it is ethically farmed, tastes deliciously tangy, with notes of cherry, mandarin, and caramel manifesting at every sip. The cherry on top, the bound-to-go-viral hangout even has a pastry exclusive to the V&A: a tart with a filling that changes seasonally. At the moment, it's a crunchy Nut Tart: a biscuity sourdough base stuffed with salted-caramel pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans.
With the V&A East Museum due to open in spring 2026 minutes away from the Storehouse, we know where all gastronomy and arts enthusiasts will be mingling at.
The V&A East Storehouse is now open in Stratford, London. Plan your visit.
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