*the “V & A Storehouse” experience (2025)-Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park-London E20

This blog topic is all about London Shoes experience when visiting a recently opened museum type venue in East London – a venue that is connected to an iconic London museum institution.

This Shoes article is all about the “V & A East Storehouse” that is situated in the Hackney Wick area of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park–London E20.

The ‘V&A Storehouse’ has only been open to the public since May 2025 – and it’s fair to say that it is certainly very different to any other ‘museum’ type venue – certainly the ones I’ve ever visited.

Located just a few minutes’ walk from Hackney Wick-Overground station – within the site of the Olympic Park in Stratford – the ‘V&A Storehouse’ is probably best described as being a ‘unique’ purpose-built museum experience, with over half a million artifacts and pieces of work, where a visitor can wander behind-the-scenes and get involved in on-site events and workshops.

Built on the site of the former Media Centre built for the 2012 Olympic Games, the ‘V&A Storehouse’ is said to be the very first of its kind in the world.

The reason for naming it a ‘Storehouse’ is because technically, that’s exactly what it is – as it accommodates the over-spill of artefacts/items from the main V&A Museum in South Kensington – stuff that used to be stored at Blythe House close by to the Museum.

The ‘Storehouse’ design is basically that of a warehouse/aircraft hanger sized type building, that’s set on 4 levels – and there are no ‘doors’ on or between the floors.

Entry to the half-a-million pieces of work is ‘free’ and in the middle of the floor spaces that the exhibits are stacked up around, is glass flooring – which you can walk on and look down (or up) at exhibits on display, above or below.

Now – here’s the thing – very few of the items on display throughout the 4 levels of exhibits, have any supporting information alongside them – explaining what they actually are, or where they’ve come from or how old they are etc – ie there’s no info about the object or its history!!!

There are a few QR Codes scattered about the place here and there which you can download and ‘log in’ to if you wanna find out about an exhibit – but nothing else to really guide, inform or direct you. It is (in my opinion) like walking into a massive ‘lock-up’ garage where stuff has been stored…..which is why it’s called the ‘Storehouse’ I guess.

The ‘Storehouse’ is described as a new revolutionary cultured museum experience, as it does not display items in the traditional way that museums do.

The way it ‘works’ is that it not only enables visitors to browse items on display, but they can also access and view them close-up and personal.

Via an on-line catalogue, the general public can order up to 5 specific objects for close-up viewing via a booked appointment – this “Order an Object” service has to be booked 2 weeks in advance of a visit date, and under close staff supervision inside a designated viewing room, it enables visitors to interact with historical items and objects of their choice – and in some cases, objects can be touched.

All very different from the norm re: a museum visit – as my accompanying photos of this Shoes blog will testify.

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Now – there was another major reason my London Shoes wanted to visit the newly opened ‘V&A Storehouse’ – and that was because its debut attraction just happens to be all about the late “DAVID BOWIE” – an absolute music legend of one of my all-time favourites.

For years the V&A have been planning this specific exhibition event – just waiting for its ‘Storehouse’ to be built and ready to house it.

The exhibition is made up of over 90,000 items from David Bowie’s archived collection of stuff and personal possessions that he had accumulated throughout his life and had stored away for prosperity and safe keeping.

When Bowie died in January 2016 he left behind thousands upon thousands of items that he had collected and accumulated over his lifetime – items which he arranged to have archived and stored away for potential future use – everything from outfits from the costumes from his Ziggy period / old instruments / various shoes / his own art works / costumes from his Thin White Duke, later 1970’s stuff / old handwritten lyric sheets / original letters from when he was turned down by various record companies / stage gear from his ‘Earthling’ drum+bass era / his old note books where he has jotted down and drawn ideas for songs, stage clothes and set-designs / props from the 1986 film Labyrinth that he appeared in….plus hundreds and hundreds of more interesting and fascinating personal possessions belonging to a guy that became such a massive global star and a major influence on music of today.

However – not ‘all’ the 90k plus Bowie items are immediately available for a punter to view.

The V&A Storehouse ‘Bowie’ exhibition adopts the same ‘revolutionary’ approach as the items on display/available for the main part of the museum – in that a visitor can ‘order-an-object’ from an on-line catalogue, and then book a visit to the ‘Storehouse’ – when, accompanied by staff, they’ll be escorted to a glass cubed viewing room – where the requested item will be laid out on a viewing table – for the visitor to see up close, and in some cases touch.

The main viewing room has a glass ceiling, so it is possible to be on the next floor up and look down on the items being viewed at any one time – weird I know but it kind of works (…..I think).

My London Shoes didn’t ‘order-an-object’ for this particular visit – but I did ‘look down’ into the viewing room at the blue suit Bowie wore for the ‘Life On Mars’ promo video – plus, there was a Ziggy tour costume out waiting to be viewed along with the costume he wore for the ‘Ashes to Ashes’ video, that was there in its storage box awaiting the arrival of the visitor who’d ordered it.

So – that’s the V&A Storehouse for you – its unique ‘regular’ exhibition display plus its current ‘Bowie’ display…..definitely a ‘different’ museum experience from the norm.

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Having visited this new and much talked about London landmark for the first time – I sort of came away, asking myself this question…..”is it really ‘revolutionary’- or – is it just a ‘lazy’ attraction???” In other words, have the items on display just simply been stacked up on top of one another for storage – with a view to simply allowing the public ‘in’ to view them – and should they have any questions then there’s an on-line process in place to potentially help answer them??

If you are looking for info/guidance on specific items on-site, then I’m not convinced you’d find it there and then – which I personally found a tad frustrating and disappointing.

But – I’m told (from my contacts in the ‘art’ world) that this form of ‘archiving’ is the new ‘thing’ and the ‘way forward’ – as younger generations find it much more ‘exciting’ than just visiting a museum – so I’m guessing there could well be more exhibitions/displays popping up in this sort of format, in the future – but in all honesty, it’s not for me.

Having said that – I’m glad of the experience and seeing some of the Bowie stuff out on display, is always ok in my book.

So – having spent a good couple of hours at the new ‘V&A Storehouse’ location – it was most definitely time for a bit of liquid and grub sustenance – and so I headed of in the direction of the Westfield Shopping Centre at the Stratford end of the Olympic Park – where, for a change, I got stuck into a luverlee cheeky Nando’s washed down with a couple of ‘craft’ lagers…..very nice it was too.

Hope you enjoyed this account of my London Shoes jaunt out to the ‘V&A Storehouse’ and hopefully the photos accompanying this piece will help put a bit of meat to the bones of what I’ve written and described above.

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this London Shoes article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The David Bowie Centre – at the V&A Storehouse (2025)