The Vagina Museum is opening at a new site in east London, after moving out of its Camden home last year.
Beginning as a pop-up museum in 2017, The Vagina Museum moved into its first 'bricks and mortar' home in Camden Market in 2019, but was forced out of there when its lease ended in September 2021. The museum's been seeking a new home ever since, and now it's got one — it reopens in Bethnal Green on 19 March.
The new space is located on Victoria Park Square, right behind the new Young V&A Museum (previously the Museum of Childhood, currently closed for refurbishment) and Museum Gardens.
It's twice the size of the previous Vagina Museum, ideal for "a growing museum tackling challenging and taboo topics". The Periods: A Brief History exhibition will be back, and bigger than before, looking at how menstruation has been misunderstood throughout history, and why it's still a taboo topic today.
Since its inception, the museum's aim is to tackle stigma around vaginas — the word, the topic, and, more importantly, health conditions. There's a Penis Museum in Iceland, and so the Vagina Museum's founder felt that an equivalent was needed.
A new, permanent exhibition about the gynaecological anatomy is also on the cards, and there are plans for a community gallery in the future.
The Vagina Museum, 18 Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green, E2 9PF. Open from 19 March 2022. Admission is free, though you're advised to book a time slot in advance. You can support the museum's move and its future by buying something from its online shop.
