Credit: Peter Kelleher © Victoria & Albert Museum, London
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Staff Writer
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9 April, 2026
London has no shortage of stunning museums and galleries. Our city is almost full to bursting with glorious institutions celebrating art and creativity. Almost, that is, because clearly there’s still room for more! Next week, London’s latest and highly anticipated museum opens its doors. The V&A East begins welcoming visitors from April 18.
The new museum is just a short walk from the celebrated V&A East Storehouse, which opened last year. When it opened, the V&A East Storehouse revolutionised how visitors can engage with the museum’s contents. The venue boasts over half a million works available to peruse in a quasi-storehouse setting (thus the name). But the V&A East Museum will have a more traditional style of engagement with its collection, akin to other museums and V&A venues.
Like other V&A sites, entrance to the V&A East is free. However, you will have to pay to see the exhibitions. But, as always, there’s plenty to see amongst the museum’s permanent, free collections.
The V&A East marks the V&A group’s 6th museum opening. Other V&A venues include:
V&A South Kensington
V&A Dundee
V&A Wedgwood Collection
V&A East Storehouse
On display at the V&A East
The artwork commands your attention at the V&A East before you even set foot through the entrance. Outside its doors, you’ll find a monumental new work from artist Thomas J Price, which is his tallest work to date. The piece, A Place Beyond, is an enormous 18ft-tall sculpture of “a fictionalised young person in casual dress, mobile phone in hand, looking out to a horizon full of possibilities.”
Photo credit: David Parry/PA Media Assignments
The new museum is dedicated to creativity’s power to bring change. And that is evident in the displays and exhibitions that the V&A East has chosen. The museum’s two free galleries, Why We Make, encompass over 500 objects from the V&A’s collection. These have been chosen and displayed to allow visitors to “explore the most important issues in contemporary culture”.
Part of the V&A’s displays will be made up of the rotating New Work programme. This sees the museum showcasing work from a range of local and global artists, designers and community collaborators who are shaping contemporary culture today. The pieces and artists highlighted will rotate every six months and will be displayed across both the V&A East and the Storehouse.
© JA Projects
As if that wasn’t enough, the V&A East Museum and Storehouse will be home to eight brand new works from the likes of “Turner Prize-nominated artist Rene Matić, Lawrence Lek, Laura Wilson and Carrie Mae Weems”. That’s in addition to pieces from the V&A collection that will be going on display for the very first time. The Museum will also feature a new photography display, Dispersal: Picturing Urban Change in East London.
V&A East’s first exhibition
The V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition is The Music Is Black: A British History, which explores the extraordinary contributions Black British music has made to culture in the UK and around the world.
Spanning over 125 years, the exhibition explores a range of different genres, from jazz to reggae, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, UK Garage, Grime, and beyond. Highlighting the remarkable contributions of Black British musicians, the exhibition will reveal the hidden stories behind some of the early 20th-century pioneers. It will also explore international music-makers and today’s groundbreaking artists from Sampha to Little Simz, Tems, Jorja Smith, Ezra Collective, and more.
Credit: Jean Bernard Sohiez, ‘Coxsone Outernational Sound System, (L-R) Festus, Blacker Dread and Bikey Dread’ © Jean Bernard Sohiez, urbanimage.tv
The V&A has collaborated with the BBC on the exhibition, and the museum was granted full access to the BBC archives. Visitors can see the likes of Joan Armatrading’s childhood guitar, fashion worn by Little Simz, and photographs by artists like Jennie Baptiste, Beezer, Dennis Morris, Eddie Otchere, and Sam White.
📍 Parkes Street, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E20 3AX.
🚇 The nearest station is Hackney Wick.
Find out more here.