The most extraordinary museum

And a bakery, of course! With possibly my favourite chocolate cookie of all time.

May 28, 2025

This wasn’t the post I had planned for you this week, but I’ve just returned from a special press preview of the most extraordinary new space and I was fed breakfast and moved close to tears multiple times, so I wanted to make sure this didn’t pass you by.

I’m still pinching myself that I ended up on the guest list. I recognised only two people from the food world (sorry I didn’t get to say hi,

Anna Jones

!). I would have loved to have known where all the other guests were from, but it wasn’t really that kind of event. The donors’ lunch is happening as I type (was typing!) and the VIP party is this evening.

There are over 150 articles or podcast episodes in the archive here at

The Next Delicious Thing

from writing weekly since March 2023. It’s the equivalent of nine months’ full time work. 😳

Yours to read at your leisure (whatever’s relevant; you can use the search function!).

And from now on, each week, one thing (ok, maybe two) that you must seek to eat, plus timely events not to miss:

I wanted to tell you about changes I am making to this newsletter. The changes are not that I’m going to start writing about museums instead. Except today. Even today I’m also going to tell you about one thing you must eat.

And I’ll stick to that most weeks going forwards. Just one thing to eat! (Maybe two.) Probably no more museum reviews, but I’ll let continue you know about pop ups and other time-sensitive things as well.

Scroll down if you’re only interested in the cookie that you must not delay any more on trying.

But if you’d like to know what made me emotional today:

A museum in a way that’s never been done before

Since I moved to East London back in 2015, I have been excited by the promises of a second V&A opening in Stratford, and a second Sadler’s Wells.

Finally, it’s here. Or Part 1 of it is.

Ten years in the planning:

The V&A (once known as the Victoria & Albert Museum after the King consort who founded the original in South Kensington after the Great Exhibition of 1849 in Hyde Park and just before his death) has long had a storage house that held the astonishing 57% of its collection that didn’t fit in the public galleries.

These items were stacked tightly by theme and went on travels to be exhibited in other museums or projects, as well as occasionally rotating into South Kensington.

All of these (more than half a million!) items have been moved to a new home that fills about half of what was the broadcasting centre for the 2012 Olympics: 16,000 square metres.

This is what opened today and will be open to the public from this Saturday.

It’s extraordinary. There is nothing else like it in the world. The closest is in Rotterdam, but in that museum there is still glazing that separates the viewer from the art.

In this revolutionary design they’re trusting the public to respect the items that they consider belong to all of us. Very few are behind glass; it’s almost all stored exactly as it is convenient to do so for being called upon by other museums around the world.

As a working storage house the one floor you can’t access - but you can see - is the ground floor.

You can’t reach everything alone, or walk down all of the aisles on the accessible floors, but what is visible in the sections you can get close to will be changed periodically - probably every six months.

The most exciting thing is that you can request up to 5 pieces at a time from the collection for closer inspection.

You apply online here and it’s a two-week turnaround.

You do not need to be a researcher or have a reason for viewing it other than you just want to.

There are study rooms where the items will be brought to you or, if it makes more sense, they’ll take you to the item in situ. You’ll be accompanied by experts and in many cases able to handle the object, too, with the guidance of the museum staff.

“These are your collections, and through Order an Object, you can have a personal experience with them – seeing them up-close, on demand, in ways that mean something to you. Want to look closer at an iconic Jimi Hendrix poster or a Marcel Breuer desk? Study the stitching of a Dior dress or legendary Comme des Garcons or Azzedine Alaïa look? Examine an ancient Egyptian woven textile fragment with a story to tell? You decide what you want to order and why.”
– Kate Parsons, Director of Collections Care and Access, V&A

And it’s free! Free to enter the space, free to book to view specific objects.

I really, really love England. (For things like this, at least!)

Hearing this is one of the things that made me emotional. The accessibility of art - and especially history - for everyone. If we were better at knowing history would the variation of the same atrocities be repeating now? I was moved by the acknowledgment of the organisers that these objects do not really belong to the museum (well… that’s obvious in part as many are a result of colonialist theft, but there are many more modern items gifted, and that wasn’t their particular point here). The museum sees its role as caring for the items so the maximum number of people can learn from or appreciate them. I am so grateful that this happens.

Another moment that made me well up was hearing about the inclusion of recent and local history and the incorporation of local young people in the curation and design.

There are six permanent architectural installations which were designed into the plan of the space:

part of a 17th Century Agra Colonnade: beautifully painted architectural columns and arches (this installation dictated the height of the first floor where you enter, where it butts up against the glass floor section)
5th century carved and gilded wooden ceiling from the now lost Torrijos
Palace near Toledo in Spain, which has been in storage for decades - you can see its container, too.
a full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century - the wide adoption of modern appliances and conveniences at home
the only complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior outside of the US: his intricately designed 1930s Kaufmann Office
a full size painted stage backdrop - this will change every six months and right now it’s the largest Picasso in the world: Ballets Russes Le Train Bleu standing over 10 metres high and 11 metres wide, rarely on display since its debut in 1924. (Again, tears in my eyes. I probably need more sleep.)
an architectural segment of local council estate Robin Hood Gardens that was demolished between 2017-2024

The council state section also made me emotional. If you didn’t know, many council estates in the area have been demolished and the poorest people from the boroughs displaced. First for the Olympics, but since, too. We met locals involved in creating the exhibit which includes voice, video, artefacts and reconstruction. I heard a section of the recording with a woman saying, “people say ‘oh, it’s a council estate’, but it’s our council estate. It’s our home.”

This is not like other museums.

There are very few cards explaining anything. Only a couple for the temporary mini exhibits and for the permanent architectural pieces. There are no galleries dedicated to particular eras or collections. The storage within the whole warehouse is by size and style of object, rather than by collection, so there’s little to no connection between items in close proximity to each other. There will be no tours.

But the special things are many. You can watch the conservators at work from overhead (this is actually their workspace, every day). You can watch things being wheeled in and out on the ground floor. There will be performances and events and tours that finish at the museum (winding through local neighbourhoods with local guides). There may be some that go within it, but it’s intended to be a self-guided experience.

I did not expect to find it as enthralling as I did. Our brilliant tour with Project Director Jen McLachlan was around half an hour and it didn’t pass every accessible section. There are 100 of the small curations like the one above. You could easily spend more than an hour here. I know I’d happily spend more (maybe not all at once, I have my limits).

Logistical things to know

You cannot take anything other than a phone inside. They’re doing their best to keep it a hermetic space so there are no bags and absolutely no food. There are obviously lockers, but try to pack light.

It is wheelchair accessible, though I’m not sure if the height of some of the displays would make the objects fully visible.

There are no seats inside, unless you’ve booked into the study library.

There is space in the foyer area where the cafe area is run by one of my favourite bakeries (coming to this shortly). I can see that seating getting filled up quite quickly.

There is a lot of public outside space in the area, nature walks and many playgrounds.

The nearest station is Hackney Wick - a 10 minute walk. I wouldn’t really advise coming by car, especially not on a match day (West Ham use the former Olympic Stadium nearby). It’s approximately 20 minutes from Stratford station and 14 from Stratford International. Once you get through Westfield Shopping Centre it’s a nice walk.

If you’re coming from Hackney Wick I’d recommend swinging by Hearth Bakery another excellent and community-minded bakery (on both bakery maps). No reason not to go to two bakeries in one day?

Capacity is 850 people. I’m not sure what it would be like with that many at once.

The permanent 90,000-piece-strong permanent Bowie Exhibition opens on 13th September (the start date is later to stagger demand: it was the most popular ever exhibition at the V&A in Kensington).

The actual Museum East that will be more like a traditional museum, but still with brave new ideas they couldn’t disclose, will open nearby in Spring 2026.

📌 V&A East Storehouse, Here East, Parkes Street, London, E20 3AX

🚆Hackney Wick

And now to the cookie I’m going to urge you to get

Honestly this cookie is incredible. I’ve been telling people for years how good it is but in case that passed you by - and because I was reminded by my pleasure in eating it again this morning - I’m going to urge you to go and get the Chocolate Rye Cookie from E5 Bakehouse.

It’s so full of chocolate it’s almost a brownie but better because it’s not (no shade on brownies, but you’ll understand when you try it).

The rye flour gives it a little extra depth and savouriness, the salt lifts the intensity of the chocolate and the texture is soft with a little chew.

I really love E5’s bread and the pain au chocolat and the galettes as well. Milling their own flour makes all the difference!

But if you only get one thing? Make it the cookie.

📌 e5 storehouse, V&A East Storehouse, Here East, Parkes Street, London, E20 3AX

🚆Hackney Wick

The new location will be in the next update of the Bread & Croissants Map and the (renamed) Cakes, Cookies & More Map coming this Sunday, along with some other new places.

You’ll also find it at their original railway arch:

📌 396 Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3PH

🚆 London Fields

And in Poplar:

📌 8a Cotall St, London E14 6TL

🚆 Langdon Park

Have you tried this cookie before?

Any idea what item you’d want to order from the museum for close inspection?