Another piece of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics legacy was slotted into place this morning with the ten o’clock opening to the public of V&A East Storehouse. The new space occupies an end of the larger of the two buildings next to the Lee Canal at Hackney Wick that originally formed the Games-time media centre, and now has a whole new life as Here East, a research, innovation and start-up complex.
The Storehouse – clue in name – is the famous South Kensington museum’s ingenious and accessible solution to the problem of what to do with its vast reserve collection. This had to be re-housed after the government made known in 2015 that it intended to sell Blythe House, a former Post Office Savings Bank building in West Ken, where the roughly 250,000 objects not displayed at the V&A itself were kept, alongside those of the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.
Moving east had a certain logic for the V&A, which was already committed to founding a new branch, to be called V&A East, as part of the unfolding East Bank culture and education complex across the park adjacent to Stratford. The approach it took broke boldly with precedent.
The idea was that, rather than being kept hidden from view to all but a select few, the reserve collection would be opened up to all, either by putting it on display or by making it available for free individual viewings if ordered from an online catalogue (the service also extends to objects at the South Ken V&A).
The design of V&A Storehouse, by New York-based architects Diller Scofidio and Renfro, combines a warehouse feel with a welcome, and you can linger at your leisure before star items such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s film noir-ish Kaufmann Office (above) a 1920s Frankfurt Kitchen (below) and the 500 year-old Torrijos ceiling. I especially liked the vases. There is a strong local history strand, too. A room is set aside for the David Bowie collection. Its doors are set to open on 13 September.
You can read more about it in the article I was pleased to write for The Wick newspaper and for my piece for On London about a preview visit in October. I went to another preview last week, when architecture critics were shown round. They can be a snotty lot, but their write-ups have been roundly approving.
That was nice to see. It was nice to see, too, as I stood in perfect sunshine watching the queue stretch down the outside of the massive building, that Tim Reeve, deputy director and chief operating officer of the V&A, was there to enjoy the moment, having led the twin-track expansion to the east of the city. He was joined by Gavin Poole, chief executive of Here East, who is enthused by the arrival of the Storehouse, which will bring a further and exciting dimension to the Here East mix.
As people filed in I took my leave – I will be back soon, probably with grandchildren – and walked to Stratford station, past the park’s latest new housing under construction, along Tessa Jowell Boulevard opposite East Bank and across the Waterworks River into Westfield. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a product of political will, design ingenuity and urban vision that still leaves any other Games legacy for dead. The V&A East Storehouse opens a chapter in that story of great British triumph.
Dave Hill is the author of Olympic Park: When Britain Built Something Big, which you can buy direct from On London. Follow Dave on Bluesky.