A la carte museum

A mix of warehouse and adult toy store, the V&A East Storehouse (warehouse of the Victoria & Albert, an institution dedicated to the decorative arts) proposes a new concept of museum.

Unlike the venerable headquarters on Cromwell Road, which operates in a traditional format, this open-air warehouse is a kind of open-air, à la carte museum. You can simply visit the space – which is well worth the detour – or, alternatively, choose one of the 250,000 objects in the collection online two weeks in advance, to then enjoy it in a private room at your leisure.

The diversity of the collection is as spectacular as the space itself: from dresses, fabrics and shoes, to carved wooden ceilings, terracotta sculptures, ancient weapons, modern design pieces... A fifth of the collection is permanently on display, in a style that could set a trend. Museums, like icebergs, only display a tiny fraction of their collections, with most of them off-limits to the public. And access is free.