The Search for the V&A Dolls Houses

A few years ago, when I interviewed William Newton (the then curator of the newly refurbished Young V&A) for an article, he mentioned an amazing new museum that was being built in the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London.  This was going to be unlike any museum seen before. A working museum, that would store all the 1000’s of items that the V&A had in their collections but were unable to display.  Previously, these collections has been scattered around the UK at various storage facilities.

William told me the unique service that would make this museum so different was the fact that you could actually order any item from the collection that was not on display but stored at the Storehouse and book an appointment to view it, close up & personal. ‘A bit like the British Library’ he said, (but surely viewing a book seems do-able but a 18 century harpsichord not so much?). Even as William was telling me this, I felt he didn’t quite believe it would happen himself & I was definitely taking what he said with a pinch of salt.

Fast forward to 2025. The V&A Storehouse opens and sure enough, the ‘Order an Object’ option popped up on their website.  It seemed unbelievable .. You can have a personal appointment to see anything in their collection stored at the Storehouse for free?

It took me a while to find my way down to Stratford, but as soon as I walked through the doors I knew I would love it.  It looks like a new IKEA store but rather than being filled with flatpack furniture made from MDF & formica, it is stuffed full of the most incredible ancient (and not so ancient) artefacts from all around the world.  

If you enjoy studying the info card by an object for hours, you may find this place a little frustrating as there are very few cards on display, but you could easily go onto the brilliant V&A website which has a detailed listing of pretty much every item they own. If, however, you are more like me and you just enjoy wandering, it is perfect.

I have now visited 3 times and still find the place intoxicating. So much to see and admire.  It is the complete mish-mash that is appealing, Its like rummaging through a stand at the local car boot fair, where you just don’t know what you will find, but maybe a touch more high end; there are even complete rooms to view like an office interior by my favourite architect Frank Lloyd Wright or the permanent archive for the David Bowie collection (including over 90 000 objects alone).  I urge everyone to make the journey to Stratford & spend some time wandering its very functional pathways.  

But what of the dolls houses?  On my first visit I asked a staff member if it would really be possible to view a dolls house that was not on display, I was told most definitely yes.  I rushed home & logged onto www.vam.ac.uk/collections immediately, but was disappointed to find none of the dolls houses had the ‘order’ button as an option.  Just as I thought, this was never going to happen. What was I thinking! Nevertheless, I returned to Stanford again and while there, I went up to the Study Room to demand answers.  I was told very nicely that the dolls houses had only just arrived at the storehouse from the Young V&A so were not catalogued yet, but please be patient and soon they would be available to view.  

I continued to check the site regularly and sure enough, something turned up which I immediately booked to view, a Doll’s Kitchen, english made in the 1860’s. I was excited to put this system to the test to see if it would actually happen.

As the date of my visit neared, I received a polite email from the Study Room to remind me about my appointment.  I checked the website again, where suddenly lots of dolls houses had appeared with the ‘order’ button available. Now spoilt for choice, I emailed them back to see if I could add some more houses to my visit (you can order up to 5 items) but the response was no, once booked , you can’t add more to the booking.

The whole experience was quite surreal.  When we arrived at the Study Room, there was a simple sign, giving some basic instructions on how to handle an item (surely we weren’t going to be able to actually touch things?) We were instructed to wash our hands & were then taken into a large airy room with huge tables covered in a variety of items from the museum. We seemed to be the only people there, apart from a couple of the staff who were packing things up. And there was the Dolls Kitchen; set out on one of these tables, ready for us to view.  We put on some stylish purple rubber gloves. ‘The dolls houses have only just arrived’ said the lady helping us ‘Its the first time we’ve seen this one’ and with that we were left alone to view the item, take out all the beautiful brass kitchen equipment from their individual sealed & tagged bags to study and photograph.  (An archivist was never a job I gave much thought to until now but it is certainly appealing)  We had a whole hour to view the piece, before it would be taken back to its shelf in the bowels of this enormous building.

Obviously, if you wish to view a large dolls house with all its contents (some of them include 1000+ pieces), you would be taken to it, rather than have it brought to you, but this is an exciting prospect too, as you would be lead through the huge storage areas & I am sure you would see some incredible sights along the way.

Following this very special visit, we are now hoping to organise a study group to visit the museum in November, where we will be able to view 5 of the dolls houses stored there.  More details to follow soon, but this is a FREE process that is open to everyone, so there is nothing stopping you ordering an item yourself & heading east.

So it now all makes sense. The re-imagining of the Young V&A to a museum for children, where a selection of their dolls houses are on permanent display, but if you are really wanting to have a unique experience, there are now many dolls houses available to view at the Storehouse personally and even without ordering a viewing, you can see many of the dolls houses stacked one above another on the huge metal shelves in the storehouse alleyways – quite a sight in itself.

V&A East Storehouse
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
E20 3AX
www.vam.ac.uk