V&A finishes moving collections to new east London storehouse

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has completed the biggest collections move in its history, with more than 250,000 objects, 1,000 archival collections and 350,000 library books now relocated to its new storage and research centre in east London.

The four-year project saw the institution decant its collections from its former storage site in Blythe House, which it shared with the British Museum and the Science Museum Group, to the new V&A East Storehouse in Stratford, which will open to the public next year.

The work was led by the V&A’s head of collections move programme, Philippa Mackenzie, and overseen by Kate Parsons, the director of collections care and access.

The final objects to move into the space include the largest in a series of 19th-century artworks documenting cave paintings at Ajanta, a Unesco World Heritage Site in Maharashtra, India.

The institution said the completion of the project marked a “monumental step in V&A East Storehouse’s journey to bring the public and V&A’s expansive national collections closer together”.

The V&A East Storehouse will spotlight collecting stories with the goal of “[opening] itself up as a sourcebook of inspiration for everyone”.

Aiming to offer a unique museum experience, the storehouse will invite visitors behind the scenes and give them “unprecedented access” to half a million creative works spanning every era, discipline and part of the world.

The 16,000 sq metre space has been designed by New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro with support from UK-based architects Austin-Smith:Lord.

Tim Reeve, deputy director and chief operating officer of the V&A, said: “The completion of this monumental move, which has been years in the planning, marshalling expertise from across the V&A, represents a huge milestone in our mission to radically transform access and remove barriers between the public and their national collections.

“V&A East Storehouse offers a unique opportunity for visitors to immerse themselves in the magical behind-the-scenes world of a working museum store, through a self-guided public network intertwined with the world’s greatest collection of art design and performance.

“We are particularly excited to be bringing the collections and archives to communities across the four Olympic boroughs, in a part of London with a rich creative heritage and great contemporary creative potential, for a new audience to discover a radically different type of museum experience when Storehouse opens in 2025.”

The new storehouse will sit alongside the V&A East Museum, also due to open in 2025, which will celebrate global creativity and making.

Both sites are part of East Bank, the Mayor of London’s £1.1bn Olympic legacy project to create a new arts, innovation and education hub in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. 

Some of the collections in the new storehouse

• Archives of the singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, the 1960s fashion house Biba and Glastonbury Festival.
• Large objects including the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside of the US and a 15th century carved and gilded wooden ceiling from the now lost Torrijos Palace near Toledo in Spain.
• 3,500 shoes from a pair of 19th century Egyptian bath clogs to Nike Magista Obra football boots and 1950s Christian Dior evening shoes.
• 1,500 chairs, from a velvet chair commissioned by Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first prime minister, to champions of modern design Charles and Ray Eames.
• Objects from across V&A’s Theatre & Performance Archives including 1920s ballet costumes designed by Henri Matisse and The Beatles shift dresses made for the premiere of A Hard Day’s Night, 1964.