V&A deputy director and COO Tim Reeve on the institution’s ambitions and plans for the Here East site
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“I hope it will feel welcoming, but I also really like the idea of visitors wondering if they’re really allowed access to all these space, that maybe they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be,” said Tim Reeve, deputy director and COO of the V&A and chair of the East Bank Board.
We’re talking about the first of two sites that the museum is set to open in Stratford as it expands its offering across the capital.
V&A East Museum is set to launch in spring 2026 at East Bank and will celebrate making and the power of creativity to effect change in the world.
V&A East Storehouse, however, goes far beyond conventional displays and promises something entirely new.
Housed at Here East about a 10-minute walk across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from East Bank itself, the V&A is creating a vast publicly accessible facility where its diverse non-display collection and archives can be looked after for the next century.
Spread over some 173,000sq ft, it is set to arrive first, opening its doors to the public on May 31, 2025.
a second site
“While we were engaged in the process of working out what V&A East Museum would be – how it would be distinctive and reflect the local geography and demographic of the people around East Bank – we were also talking to the Government about the future of Blythe House,” said Tim.
“That’s the place in West Kensington where we stored all our non-display collections – about 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives.
“It was made clear to us, along with the Science Museum and British Museum – which also use it as store – that we needed to leave because the building was to be redeveloped.
“That was a pain, because you don’t want to be moving a collection of our sort more often than you have to, due of the delicacy of the objects and the expense.
“However, it was also a clarifying moment for the V&A East project with the idea that we could find a place for our Blythe House objects, books and archives and that we could create two sites in east London.
“We just needed to find a space big enough and close enough to East Bank to make sense. Looking at the two sites together, you get a complete 360-degree view of the contemporary museum world.”
tucked away: V&A East Storehouse
While V&A East Museum, with the dramatic angles of its purpose-built home at East Bank, will be the more visually striking, in content it will probably feel the more familiar of the two with galleries, exhibitions, a cafe and a shop.
Somewhat tucked away in the former Media And Broadcast Centre built for the 2012 Olympics, V&A Storehouse is deliberately radical.
Storehouse will be a place where our objects live and where we look after them,” said Tim. “We know people want to see what they’ve been told they can’t – where the magic happens.
“So V&A East Storehouse has been created to facilitate people’s exploration of the bit of our organisation that would normally be hidden – a visitor experience that’s self-guided and free every day of the year.
“We have an absolutely enormous, amazing space, where we can fit everything in, with some space to spare as the collection grows.
“We’re building some of our showpiece objects into it such as architectural fragments from the Robin Hood Gardens estate and we’ve come up with a public network of spaces intertwined with the collection.
“That will be a 60 to 90-minute, self-guided tour of exploration as people burrow their way up through the building and arrive in this incredible atrium.
“From there you can keep exploring and see how far you can get – it’s been designed to allow visitors to get as far as possible.
“Moving all our stuff from Blythe House is incredibly expensive, so we thought we might as well create a new world with it and that’s what we’ve done at Storehouse.
“The idea is you will breathe the same air as the objects we hold.
“A visit is the start of a journey and we hope people will come back when they realise they can browse as much as they like.
“Here East is a warehouse, an industrial building – not a marble-clad museum. It’s humble and we want as many people as possible to visit.
“It’s also a source to be mined and returned to, constantly changing as it’s also a working building with objects going out on loan or for conservation.”
east London influence
Designed by architects Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Storehouse will be home to an extensive and varied collection including creative works from The Glastonbury Festival Archive, PJ Harvey and Elton John’s costumes, vintage football shirts, Dior and Schiaparelli haute couture, Roman frescos, samurai swords, mid century furniture and the iPhone.
A dedicated David Bowie Centre will showcase artefacts from the musician and performer’s archive with rotating displays set to open in September.
More than 100 miniature displays on the ends of storage systems will highlight specific exhibits including those relating to this part of the capital.
“There will be lots of east London influence in the way we’re displaying and interpreting the collection,” said Tim.
“Our piece of Robin Hood Gardens was the first thing we installed here because it’s so enormous.
“It’s one of the first things visitors will see when they climb the stairs.
“Our collection is international and so we want to bring out its full splendour, depth and range and there are some really wonderful east London stories we want to showcase, drawing inspiration from the connections with the local community we have built.
“I think walking in on opening day will be a really emotional moment.
“Colleagues across the institution have poured so much time and energy into it, through some really tricky moments, of which we’ve had more than our fair share.
“It’s the most important thing I’ve done in my professional life, and will probably be the most important thing I ever do.
“I feel I’ve been really lucky to be involved in creating such a project since 2013.
“You have a light bulb moment and think what it would be like to see it happen – to be around from beginning to end.
“There were moments when it felt like it might never happen.
“But as an institutional lift, it doesn’t get any better.
“And we are here for the long term.
vWe have a 100-year lease at Here East and 200 at East Bank.
“One of the biggest treats for us is seeing people who were here before the Olympics realising that these things are being created for their benefit.
“The interplay between the different types of organisations at East Bank make the future very interesting – a special destination.”
key details: V&A Storehouse
V&A East Storehouse is set to open on May 31, 2025, at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Entry will be free. The David Bowie Centre will open on September 13.
V&A East Museum will launch in spring 2026 at East Bank in Stratford.
Find out more about the openings here
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- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
