I had anticipated having a weekend to myself the other weekend but my husband’s trip home was scuppered by rail works and so we had a weekend together. After a lazy Saturday, we decided to get up and out on Sunday and go and visit somewhere I’ve been wanting to go since it opened last year – the V&A East Storehouse.
As a V&A Member I’ve been delighted to see some of their venues start to move to our end of London. First with the Young V&A, then the V&A East Storehouse and in a few months, the V&A East. From a selfish perspective, anything we don’t have to schlep halfway across the city to see is a great thing in my view.
The V&A East Storehouse is located in the Here East building in Hackney Wick on the edge of the Olympic Park, we hopped on the a bus that took us to Hackney Wick and then walked up the canal towards Here East. It was a damp rainy day and we arrived a little early so found a little bus shelter to take refuge from the drizzle as we waited for the doors to open.
Once inside we were greeted by a friendly face who, after checking if it was our first visit, informed us of the rules. Namely that all belongings were to be placed into lockers before going inside. We were told that you are allowed to take in a phone, sketchbook and camera (the latter was unclear from the website so I hadn’t brought mine – all photos in this post being from my phone).
You enter onto the first floor of the building and step into what feels like Ariel, the Little Mermaid’s cave of illicit human goodies or a more historic version of an IKEA warehouse. But, instead of a flatpack Billy Bookcase (although I bet the V&A does have its fair share of IKEA in their archives somewhere), you might find a chandelier, or a mid-century modern desk, or a stone carving.
Probably the most unique feature of the V&A East Storehouse is that this is very much a working storehouse. And they have made the most of this by allowing unique little glimpses into the behind the scenes work. Set into the first floor is a glass floor allowing visitors to peer down below their feed onto layers of storage and shelving. At the end of racks of shelving you get small looks at what it is to work in museum conservation. We visited on a weekend and so, for the most part, activity was minimal, but it was still exciting to get an idea of just how much stuff the V&A has that isn’t on display and what it must take to ensure that it is all catalogued and preserved.
In addition to the racks of stuff and the small transient end-displays, the Storehouse features a number of larger scale pieces, which punctuate the storehouse, including a Frankfurt Kitchen, the Torrijos ceiling and an office designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J Kaufmann.
I remember reading articles about how the intention was to preserve a whole flat from Robin Hood Gardens, and how it would be on display in the V&A East Storehouse. Maybe I’m misremembering it or maybe the intentions changed but now there’s only a section of facade and some peripheral displays (a video display about the inside, the ability to see the front doors and hallway and an audio piece). It’s a shame because for someone with an interest in that period, brutalist architecture and the streets in the skies concept, it’s a much reduced display from what I had hoped for.
On the whole though, this is a wonderful place and I hope one that leads other museums around the world to consider trying something new with their vast archives of stuff. The ability to get close to things you might never choose to see in a museum if they weren’t presented to you and the ability to order objects to get closer to is, to my knowledge, unprecedented.
Also located within the V&A East Storehouse is the David Bowie Centre, a single room featuring guest-curated displays of David Bowie-related archival material acquired from David Bowie’s estate. At the time we visited it required timed tickets pre-booked in advance and released in blocks. Typically for us, a few days after we visited I got an email saying that they were now doing away with timed tickets and the need to book ahead. All it means for us though is that we’ll just have to go back another day and visit again, which we definitely would anyway.
The V&A East (located near the Westfield end of the Olympic Park) opens in April, giving us even more reason to return.
