A warehouse reimagined as a museum

Designed by the New York practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro with UK architects Austin-Smith:Lord, the Storehouse turns the logic of a museum inside out. Visitors enter through a street-level lobby and follow a walkway straight through racks of storage before emerging into the central Weston Collections Hall—a 20-metre-high clearing in the densely packed warehouse. The hall is organised in concentric layers of access: at the inner edge, open crates face the public; beyond that sit semi-public archives; and the outermost ring holds private staff spaces, conservation studios and deep storage protected from light and dust.↗↗

The result is deliberately a "cabinet of curiosities" rather than a tidy timeline. As founding partner Elizabeth Diller puts it, you are invited to explore not by standard curatorial categories but by your own interests. In practice that means wandering metal-grid walkways with glass balustrades, looking down into the working store and out across three levels of shelves that are constantly being restocked as objects go off to other exhibitions.↗↗↗

Mini displays and the objects that anchor the hall

Scattered across all three levels are more than 100 small curated displays, literally "hacked" into the ends and sides of the storage racking, blending east London's heritage with cutting-edge creativity. Scan the QR code at any of them to pull up details through the V&A East Storehouse Lookup tool. Themes range from local artistry, activism and resistance to the museum's newest acquisitions by transgender and non-binary artists, and to the science of conserving fragile materials.↗↗↗

Six monumental objects anchor the hall—many too large to have been shown for decades. Through the glass flooring at the centre of the Collections Hall you can look down on the Agra Colonnade, an 18-tonne marble structure of five columns built in the 1630s for a bathhouse in the Red Fort at Agra. A three-storey section of Robin Hood Gardens, the iconic Brutalist social housing estate designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in east London, is displayed with its maisonette interiors and recordings of former residents. Nearby hangs the richly carved 15th-century gilded ceiling from the now-lost Torrijos Palace near Toledo, Spain, shown with its supporting framework exposed.↗↗↗

Other giants of the collection include the Kaufmann Office, a panelled room and furnishing designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the mid-1930s and reassembled here as the only complete Wright interior outside the United States; the pioneering Frankfurt Kitchen by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky; and the towering Ballets Russes Le Train Bleu stage cloth, a copy of a Picasso painting enlarged to roughly 10 by 11 metres and signed by the artist himself—the largest Picasso work in the world, rarely seen in public until now.↗↗↗

Pop, performance and the archives

If you came for music and theatre, the Storehouse opens doors that most museums keep locked. It is home to the David Bowie archive, given a permanent home in a dedicated section of the Study Centre, alongside the archives of Glastonbury Festival and Talawa Theatre Company, and instruments and items from pioneering British musicians such as PJ Harvey, The Who and The Rolling Stones.↗↗↗

The Study Centre itself grants access to the Archives of Art and Design and of Theatre and Performance, with four multi-use areas including the Clothworkers' Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, and the National Video Archive of Performance, which holds more than 300 recordings of live shows. It is a place to see how artists, designers and performers actually work, through costume boards, notes, stage designs and rare garments.↗↗

Getting closer: Order an Object and behind the scenes

The standout experience here is the free Order an Object service. Search the collection online, book a time slot at least two weeks ahead, and an experienced handling member of staff will bring the chosen object into a study room so you can see it up close—whether or not it is on open display, and up to five items per booking. You do not need to be a researcher or justify your interest; the museum frames it as a service for anyone who simply wants to see something that makes them happy.↗↗

Prefer something more spontaneous? Daily drop-in Object Encounters are free group sessions led by staff and visiting experts that spotlight different corners of the collection; details go up on the noticeboard in the Welcome Space, and you can sign up at the Study Centre on level 2. On level 3, a glass overlook balcony and live-feed screen let you watch conservators at work in their studios on everything from paintings to puppets.↗↗

Planning your visit

Admission is free and you do not need to book general entry, though some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge. Opening is daily from 10.00 to 18.00, with late openings until 22.00 on Thursdays and Saturdays; it closes on 24–26 December. It is a working storehouse, so expect to see—and sometimes hear—staff moving objects around you as part of the experience.↗↗

A few practicalities make the day smoother. Bags and coats, however small, are not allowed in the main hall and must be stowed in the free lockers in the Welcome Space (the regular lockers are modest, so leave bulky luggage and large buggies behind); there is a buggy park on site. The walkways have metal-grid flooring, so flat, practical shoes are recommended rather than heels. At busy times there can be a queue to enter, and the V&A gives priority to bookings and to anyone who cannot wait long, so a small umbrella and a little patience are worth packing in wet weather.↗

The entrance is step-free and wheelchair accessible, with lifts to every level and assistance dogs welcome; accessible toilets are available. For a break, the café e5 Storehouse—a local bakery with a seasonal menu of pastries, sandwiches, salads and soups, plus vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options—is open through the day and into the evening on Thursdays and Saturdays.↗↗↗

The main entrance is on Parkes Street, inside Here East. By public transport, Hackney Wick Overground is the closest at about an eight-minute walk, with Stratford (around 20 minutes) and Stratford International (around 17 minutes) also nearby, all with step-free access. The 388 bus stops outside Here East, a frequent Here East shuttle runs from Stratford stations on weekdays, and Santander Cycle docks and bike lanes serve the Olympic Park. There is no designated Storehouse parking, though multi-storey car parks sit at Stratford International and Westfield Stratford City.↗↗

Making a day of it at East Bank

The Storehouse sits within East Bank, the new cultural quarter at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, alongside BBC Music Studios, London College of Fashion, UCL East and Sadler's Wells East. The second V&A East site, the V&A East Museum, is a short walk away, so the whole area lends itself to a long day of design, performance and galleries in east London.↗↗