Review: V&A East Storehouse Instantly Becomes One Of London's Great Museums

"I'm going to have to come back," someone mutters to me as they totter by, "It's almost overwhelming."

V&A East Storehouse is an inside-out museum. The outside of the Diller Scofidio + Renfro building is in many ways unremarkable, utilitarian — no ionic pillars or plashing fountains. No marble steps either; instead you clang your way up a reasonably workaday metal staircase, and up through the floor into the atrium. At which point, things get unreal, and you may well let out a small gasp.

Here is a contemporary, cinematic take on a 16th century cabinet of curiosities — collections as diverse and unpredictable as London itself. A row or ornate swords, a stuffed turtle, walnut cabinet television sets, a chopper bike, popping Althea McNish fabrics, a rare Suffragette scarf from the 1910s, Roman frescoes, tutus from The Firebird, a motorbike. All stacked on shelves, themselves stacked on mezzanines: an Amazon warehouse of tangible history. And like an Amazon warehouse, you can order objects from here too. Really.

A traditional museum collection hoards away the lion's share of its collections in warehouses; the more it grows, the less of it the public sees. At V&A East Storehouse in Hackney — which opens on Saturday 31 May and is free to enter — things work differently.

Of course, still only a fraction of the collection can be seen at any one time. But the idea here, says our guide, is that curators are responsive, moving, agile. If a group comes in and wants to know more about 16th century Italian frescoes, a small display might be assembled for their next visit. Anyone can browse the collections and — via the Order an Object service — have one of 250,000 pieces and 350,000 books brought out to them, and them alone, to study — a uniquely personal experience. If the item's too big to come to their table, you will be taken to it — an Indiana Jones adventure in miniature.

I've previously likened this extraordinary space to the denouement of Citizen Kane, but Charles Foster Kane was all about stashing his valuables away; V&A East Storehouse is, in its own words, is for "meaningful, democratised access — a book that is open and never shut."  This is the museum of tomorrow.

Within this magnificent space there are other magnificent spaces — rooms that have been plucked from history and replanted in Hackney Wick. The staggering confection of the medieval Spanish Torrijos ceiling. A chunk of the brutalist (and not-long torn down) Robin Hood Gardens hanging on one side of the atrium, a concrete cliff face now living a second life.

Within two seconds, the Kauffman Office — a glossy cyprus plywood box, designed by the great Frank Lloyd Wright for a Pittsburg retail magnate — may well have become my favourite museum object ever (if you can count it as a single object). Many others will go away reeling from the Ballets Russes Le Train Bleu stage cloth — the largest Picasso artwork anywhere in the world (Picasso didn't paint it himself, but loved it so much that he signed it). It's given a spotlit stage of its own — and can be admired from the ground floor, or a gallery above (a neat riff on theatre stalls and circles). Even this won't stay in situ forever. This museum must keep moving. It is here not just for historic reflection, but to inspire, to demonstrate fresh angles of curation — to challenge the very concept of a museum.

An object on one of the 100 mini curated displays hacked into the ends and sides of the storage racking is one of the burgundy waistcoats flecked with bright orange buttons, worn by the curators and technicians here. It's more than a wry, meta wink for the passing visitor. When this museum opens on Saturday, it'll mark a milestone moment in London's cultural scene. That waistcoat is already brimming with history.

V&A East Storehouse, open daily from Saturday 31 May 2025, free entry (though some exhibitions and events will be charged). You can just turn up to browse, but you'll need to book ahead for the Order an Object service.

All images by Londonist