V&A East Storehouse: Unveiling the inner mechanisms of South Kensington’s Victoria & Albert Museum

The Courtauldian
1 day ago
6 min read

Isabella Jones Bartle

On what goes on behind the exhibit and how our leading museums are educating us

An hour by train from the famous Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, is located its new storehouse, recently opened in Spring 2025. V&A East Storehouse has opened its doors, revealing the 250,000 objects, 350,000 library books, and 1,000 archives which would otherwise be hidden in the archives. Through this project, the V&A pulls back the curtain, with a focus on presenting the reality of the working museum over perfected curation.

As someone who usually prefers museums which contextualise its pieces within period interiors, I was surprised to find that I didn’t mind the rather modern, sterile appearance of the new V&A East Storehouse. Its interior inspired a curiosity within me; for the first time, the viewer is permitted access to the archives and behind the scenes of art historical conservation.

V&A East is dizzyingly massive, larger than thirty basketball courts, and with glass and metal grates as structures to walk on and see through. A combination between walking through IKEA and turning the pages of a giant-sized catalogue, items are stacked, lined up, hung up, above and below you, and drifting somewhere in between.

There are opportunities for visitors to watch conservators and V&A staff from a platform as they work on specific items from the collections. The process is both relaxing and entrancing, like watching the inner mechanisms of an antique clock. The internal maintenance of historical records is revealed, for free. Rows and rows of caskets, furniture, paintings, mosaics, textiles, and carved woodwork are stored on metal frameworks which visitors are encouraged to walk in between.

To many, the field of art history, or history in general, can feel static and dated. ‘How is this relevant to society now?’ ‘Where does this lead?’ ‘What opportunities does this field of study offer?’ The V&A East captures the viewer by showing them what they have investigated and what they are yet to investigate. Museums are not just about storing and displaying past, historical art and objects. Museums house what is being created, designed, and produced today, hint towards future creative projects, and demonstrate that a piece produced a decade ago or when we were born requires the same care and investigation as a medieval illuminated manuscript. Museums are about recording the present as well as ensuring that the aim of protecting, conserving, and celebrating historical pieces are honoured and maintained as they were one-hundred years ago. V&A Storehouse aims to be transparent and encouraging about the museum and heritage sector, making the process and methods in archival work and conservation accessible to all.

V&A Storehouse demonstrates how art history is constantly developing and ever-changing. Constant discoveries are made, through restoration and excavation, more artefacts emerge from the archives, conservationists work through a never-ending collection of pieces. V&A East excited me as it reminded me that there is always something new to discover.

A display which particularly caught my eye was two painted panels, very muddy in colour and with visible marks and stains. These two pieces are part of the V&A’s mission to salvage historic houses. The fragments and decorations seen in the picture used to belong to the Magpie and Stump house, designed in the 1890s by Charles Robert Ashbee. The house stood in Chelsea until 1969. Having saved these parts of the house before its demolition, they have remained in the archives ever since. V&A East is the first chance for them to be seen by visitors as a collected artefact.

By displaying the panels in this state, the viewer is included in the restoration process, as we can see it in its natural aged state before it is cleaned and potentially altered. At the V&A East, the collection presents discovery and mystery.

V&A East are yet to fully explore their potential. Despite creating the illusion that the museum allows visitors to explore an entire warehouse of material, the rows surrounding the perimeter of the space stop disappointingly short. Gates and bars stop visitors in their tracks all too soon. To maximise their innovation, V&A East must take it the whole way. Give visitors access right to the very end of the row. Of course, staff must have private spaces to work and to navigate the site, but it is clear they have more room to share.

Moreover, the reason why their display on salvaging historic houses was so engaging and exciting was because of the story behind the piece. Under half of the items seen on display have a story that is shared with the public.

Furthermore, information is not readily available nor easily accessible to all. Reading about the objects in the collections is completely digitalised by scanning a QR code, and not everyone wishes to be looking at their phone continuously whilst trying to enjoy the museum. Many visitors leave their houses to visit galleries and museums as a form of education, pleasure, and escapism from our overly ‘online’ world. To return to the simplicity and mind strengthening exercise of simply reading, observing, and discussing is something which I value and treasure. It is not that I am frustrated by the additional lengths one is required to go to find out more, but the digitised nature of it. Reading archived documents, books, files, or catalogues would be the most inclusive, regarding age and accessibility to devices, and would further commit to the feel of being inside a warehouse of history to explore.

The ‘Navigating the Storehouse’ information displays do give hope to a more manual, engaged, and real-life way of learning and looking which should be expanded more widely and committed to throughout the museum. However, this curatorial decision speaks to the worrying descent into societal dependence on convenient technology and artificial intelligence.

Regardless of the reason behind this decision, this simplified way of sharing information not only does not delve into the story of the object well enough, but more importantly, reminds me of the vagueness of generative AI. It is becoming a worrying issue that the increased use of generative AI for learning purposes is failing to uphold individuals’ skills in critical thinking, analysis, and general deciphering of meaning.

In saying this I do not criticise the array of benefits which technology and intelligence contributes to society and the operations and systems it supports. Technology is a powerful tool and source of knowledge, but it should never replace the process of original, independent, and critical thinking.

The lack of text plates mean that viewers are left without thoughtful and engaging stories of the pieces, and all that remains is oversimplified statements and factual information: object title, date of creation, creator, place of creation. One positive outcome of this is that it gives room for imagination, and for one to reach their own opinion about an object. Perhaps the absence of a narrative voice invites the viewer to use and develop their own?

One may argue that this is the information that an art historian deals with, sometimes lacking details or depth, but as a curated exhibit to the public surely it is the curators’ duty to give visitors something more substantial to work with. In doing this, the viewer is not held back by a lack of field knowledge (not all art historical terminology and concepts are common knowledge!) but is simultaneously challenged by the information they read.

V&A Storehouse strides in the right direction of pinpointing and addressing what mystifies individuals about the study of art history. Throughout history, artist intentions have been a myriad of things; political, aesthetic, status affirming, a product for survival, a product for entertainment. The creation of materials, such as woven fabrics, pigments, thread, are scientific, yet you cannot apply textbook formulas to developments in artistic taste, shifting styles, or how an object comes to pass through different regions, cultures, as a result, shifting in significance and meaning. Art history is not common sense, nor is it a black and white narrative, requiring the viewer or student to engage in far more than simply admiring a beautiful object or painting. It is not possible to know or understand even half of the story without more material. How one chooses to interpret the information and form a judgement afterwards, is up to the viewer.

Museums, houses of education, and academic expertise, must encourage and provoke debate and discussion, they must challenge opinion and knowledge, and they must supply and push individuals with human explanations of what they are seeing. The lack of information at V&A East is a perfect method of revision for art history students, but distancing and unapproachable to those outside of the art history world.