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Costumes, handwritten lyrics and instruments among the 90,000+ items that will go on display in V&A’s new East Storehouse venue next year.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has announced that the long-awaited V&A East Storehouse will open next year.
The vast new open-access working store will be based at the former 2012 Olympics site in Stratford, east London, and will house more than 250,000 objects.
A huge collection of David Bowie memorabilia will go on display at the David Bowie Centre, which will open at the museum’s East Storehouse and feature more than 90,000 items from throughout the music icon’s career.
The East Storehouse will open on 31 May, while the David Bowie Centre will open on 13 September 2025. Both spaces will be free to enter.
The David Bowie Centre will reveal “the stories behind the creation of some of Bowie’s iconic albums and personas from Aladdin Sane to The Thin White Duke, and his significant influence on creatives from Lana del Rey to Lil Nas X and Issey Miyake,” says a V&A statement.
The centre will be spread across three zones, which will include curated displays, audio visual installations and study areas. Unlike other archives, however, visitors will be explore the Bowie archive on their own. The storehouse will launch the seven-day-a-week Order An Object initiative, which allows visitors to pre-book to see an item from its entire collection up close.
According to a project statement, this design is intended to “give unprecedented access and greater transparency, breaking down physical barriers and removing glass cases to get visitors closer than ever before to their national collections”.
The announcement of the new Bowie Centre comes after the V&A acquired Bowie’s archive with the help of his estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.
Tim Reeve, deputy director of the V&A, said: “The opening of V&A East Storehouse next May delivers on our ambition to create a new standard for access to national collections, in an area of London with such a rich creative heritage and vibrant and talented creative community.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “The opening of the V&A East Storehouse next year will be a wonderful addition to our capital’s cultural landscape. The working store will offer Londoners and visitors unprecedented free access to a wide variety of creative works, from Roman artefacts to modern-day music archives.”
“It’s another hugely significant moment in the creation of our powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning at East Bank, as we build a better London for everyone,” he added.
The East Storehouse is the first of two new V&A attractions opening in east London, followed by the launch of the V&A East Museum, which is set to open in spring 2026. The twin projects represent the largest UK museum development scheme for decades.