The V&A East Storehouse is great fun, when you find it.
I wasted an hour traipsing from Stratford station round the Westfield shopping centre and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, advised by a succession of friendly and well-meaning security guards who haven’t been fully briefed about east London’s latest tourist attraction.
Most of my guides referred to their iPads which confused the Storehouse with V&A East, the new museum that is yet to open. The correct transport solution is the 388 bus from Stratford Station to the Here East bus stop which is within sight of the Storehouse.
Almost all museums have capacity only to display a fraction of their full collections.
The Victoria & Albert Museum, which was founded in 1852 and covers five acres of South Kensington, has taken the opportunity to expand to Stratford, by not only building a brand-new additional museum but by opening access to its reserve collections in an interesting, exciting, inclusive way.
Entry to the V&A East Storehouse is free and, with suitable safeguarding in place, visitors are free to see otherwise inaccessible exhibits at close quarters: [Visit V&A East Storehouse]. Indeed, it’s possible to request in advance a personal inspection of almost any item in the building: [Order an Object · V&A].
A three-floor atrium enables visitors to wander at will admiring beautiful and unexpected pieces of art and craft, and learning about the business of curating exhibits to ensure their physical survival.
I know people whose vertigo would react adversely to the metal-grid flooring which is unsuitable for stiletto or kitten heels. However, the visitor-friendly staff are endlessly helpful and solicitous in providing directions and looking after additional needs.
The large set-piece exhibits include the exquisite Torrijos Ceiling (c1490) [Torrijos Ceiling – Search Results | V&A Explore the Collections], made for a now-lost palace in Spain, with the opportunity to look closely at the construction of the rough carpentry framework at close quarters from the upper level of the atrium.
Another major exhibit is the Kaufmann Office (1935-37) [Kaufmann Office | Wright, Frank Lloyd | V&A Explore The Collections], the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside the USA, designed for the Pittsburgh department-store owner Edgar J Kaufmann with all its original furniture, marquetry and textiles.
My favourite interior is much more modest than these two – the Frankfurt Kitchen [Frankfurt Kitchen | Schütte-Lihotzky, Margarete (Grete) | V&A Explore The Collections], a revolutionary rational, efficient and hygienic design by Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky for municipal flats in 1926-27. It is the ancestor of every fitted kitchen that followed.
Grasping the eclecticism of this place is like reading an IKEA catalogue on speed. Visiting the original South Kensington V&A once a day for a year would merely begin to reveal its richness. It’s only practical to treat the Storehouse as a lucky dip.
When enough’s enough, it’s easy to find food and drink on the ground floor. And if the café is crowded, there’s the Clarnico Club [Clarnico Club] coffee shop across the road on Parkes Street.