Review: V&A East Comes To Stratford, Creating More Cultural Chutzpah

On Saturday 18 April 2026, a major new London museum, V&A East, opens in Stratford. We took a sneak peek.

What is V&A East?

Chronic museum openers V&A have *checks notes* opened another museum, this one on the bonny banks of the Waterworks River in Stratford, a stone's throw from its other pretty-damned-new museum, V&A East Storehouse (which itself houses an even-slightly-newer Bowie museum). V&A East's opening has been shifted back a couple of times now (in part, probably because they were so busy opening other museums), leaving would-be museum-goers drooling over the tantalising sight of those 479 sand coloured precast concrete panels which make up the museum's unique exterior.

Yes, that looks quite the building...

Designed by O'Donnell & Tuomey, it's inspired by Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga's sculptural tailoring — with a flamboyant (and almost origami-like?) exterior folded around what the architects call a 'rational' core. In fact, the interior is jazzy too — with jaunty terrazzo staircases flinging off in all directions, and oblique angled windows inviting you into their nooks, for triangular views over the Olympic Park. In short: it's a smasher.

What's V&A East's 'thing'?

'Celebrating making and creativity's power to bring change' is how V&A East phrases it — an 'everything but the kitchen sink' remit that sucks in fashion, music, fine arts, architecture, engineering... more or less everything. East Londoners are afforded a brighter share of the limelight (think Yinka Ilori's Captain Hook chair frame, a William Morris inspired football kit, and a set model from A Taste of Honey, the edgy Joan Littlewood play that debuted at Stratford's Theatre Royal in 1958). But it's not all capital centric: from portraits taken in Preston bus station, to the abstract rugs of Irish designer/entrepreneur Eileen Gray, displays are diverse. They'll enjoy a shake-up every now and then, too.

With the onus on creative processes, inspiration, innovating thinking — and even repairing — parts of V&E East wouldn't feel out of place in Kensington's Design Museum, or maybe the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey (I admit I've never been). Given that Stratford has become one of the city's emerging creative hubs (London College of Fashion, Sadler's Well and the BBC are neighbours), this feels entirely fitting. At moments, V&A East feels like a whole new generation of museum — very much like its sister over in Hackney.

Is V&A East free?

The museum's two Why We Make galleries are the main event for those seeking free entertainment. These two mid-sized spaces are packed with more than enough for a couple of hours of in-depth exploration (a sign on the way in sweetly points out "Don't feel you have to see everything today").

Up on the third floor, there's a paid-for temporary exhibition, the first being The Music is Black: A British Story — a 125-year journey from slavery through to Little Sims. True, it has more than a few echoes of the British Library's 2024 Beyond the Bassline exhibition, but a raft of stand-out exhibits (including a glittery gold dress worn by Shirley Bassey; and a collection of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's batons which were chopped up by thieves, then stuck back together), make this a strong start.

The best thing about V&A East?

V&A East doesn't have the juggernaut show-stoppers of its sister Storehouse (no chunks of brutalist housing estates, nor art deco offices shipped in from Pittsburgh), meaning the highlights at the newer museum are likely to be more subjective. I loved Frederick Warren Wilkes' 1921 design for a replacement handle for broken crockery, but that won't be everyone's cup of tea. Perhaps you'll go for Leigh Bowery's provocative ballet costumes. Maybe the homey assemblage of side tables and vanity screens by the Bloomsbury Group's Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell.

And that's just it; as with all V&A museums, variety is the spice of life. The cheek by jowl juxtaposition (take, for instance, a slashed Vivienne Westwood denim ensemble rubbing literal shoulders with an 18th century woven silk gown embroidered with floral designs) will keep you on your toes. The curation is meticulously casual, if that can be a thing.

And the worst?

Nothing bad about it. Does the building/layout have the audacious mic drop swagger of V&A East Storehouse? Not quite. Is the soundtrack piped through headphones in the Music is Black exhibition a little overwhelming, what with all the wires/audio overlap? Yes. But that's splitting hairs. The absolute worst thing about V&A East would be if you never bothered visiting. London continues to spoil us rotten, culturally, at least.

TL;DR

V&A East is another highly impressive addition to Stratford's East Bank, celebrating the craft and innovation of east Londoners, and a diversity of creatives from across the country and beyond. Zany building. Mainly free. You could cram it into a day but don't need to. The Olympic legacy is complete. It's someone else's turn for a glow-up now. V&A Croydon, anyone?

V&A East, Stratford, opens 18 April 2026, free entry, although The Music is Black: A British Story is paid-for.

All images by Londonist.