Image: View of Weston Collections Hall, which features over 100 mini curated displays, at V&A East Storehouse (Kemka Ajoku for V&A)
New photos reveal V&A’s 16,000m2 working store housing 250,000 objects.
Visitors will soon be able to step inside the V&A East Storehouse for the first time as the facility opens to the public on Saturday 31 May 2025. The 16,000 square metre space houses over 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives across four levels.
Designed by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro and located in the former London 2012 Olympics Media and Broadcast Centre, the facility combines a working museum store with public access on an unprecedented scale.
The facility’s Order an Object service allows free seven-day-a-week access to any object housed at V&A East Storehouse. Since launching on 13 May, over 250 appointments have been booked to view over 1,000 objects. The most popular item ordered is a 1954 pink silk taffeta evening dress by Cristóbal Balenciaga.
The central Weston Collections Hall features over 100 mini curated displays integrated into storage racking. Six large-scale objects anchor the space, including the largest Pablo Picasso work in the world, the Ballets Russes Le Train Bleu stage cloth, measuring 10 metres high and 11 metres wide. The stage cloth has been rarely displayed since its 1924 debut.
Other major exhibits include the 1930s Kaufmann Office, the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside the United States, and a 15th century carved and gilded wooden ceiling from the former Torrijos Palace in Spain.
V&A East Storehouse represents the first of two new V&A East cultural destinations in east London. The second facility, V&A East Museum, is scheduled to open in spring 2026.
