New V&A museum to open in East London this weekend with Black British music exhibit
V&A East opens in Stratford this weekend (Saturday 18th April). Entry is free.
Date published: 13th Apr 2026
New museum V&A East will open in East London this weekend, on Saturday 18th April.
The highly anticipated opening of the new V&A museum, which is located in Hackney Wick’s new East Bank cultural quarter at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, is finally here!
The new V&A - the group’s sixth site - is just a short walk from the V&A East Storehouse, which opened last year. It joins V&A’s other existing sites in South Kensington, Dundee, the Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent, and the Young V&A in Bethnal Green.
The family of Victoria and Albert Museums (V&A) focuses on championing design and creativity, aiming to advance cultural knowledge and inspire, with this new museum being “dedicated to creative opportunity and its power to bring change.”
Entry to the new V&A East will be free, so you can enjoy the permanent free collections. However, you will need to pay to see its exhibitions.
V&A East’s first exhibition will be ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’, which looks at 125 years of Black music-making in Britain, revealing how Black British music has shaped our culture. It looks at 125 years of music, exploring genres including jazz, reggae, lovers rock, jungle, drum and bass, trip-hop, 2-tone, UK garage, Brit funk, grime, and more.
A multi-sensory experience, it showcases over 200 objects, including instruments, soundtracks, artworks, fashion, and personal belongings of famous artists. This includes the Nintendo rapper JME used for early music experiments, fashion worn by Little Simz, and newly acquired photographs of legendary DJ duo Kemistry and Storm, plus Mis-teeq and Skepta.
The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition opens this weekend in line with the museum’s opening.
The museum's permanent ‘Why We Make’ galleries will be free to access. Featuring over 500 objects spanning art, architecture, design, performance, and fashion across centuries and cultures, it invites visitors to "explore the most important issues in contemporary culture with displays revealing unexpected connections across time and creative discipline."
It features Molly Goddard’s 2020 Daria dress (as worn by Beyonce), a 1990 Cut, Slash & Pull ensemble by Vivienne Westwood, a copy of a 16th-century self-portrait by Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola, and more.
Finally, V&A East will have a café from the team behind Jikoni, with a menu inspired by the communities that shaped East London's food scene.
You can find V&A East at Parkes Street, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, London E20 3AX.
Opening on Saturday 18th April, the museum will then be open daily from 10am until 6pm, extending to 10pm on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Admission is free. Some exhibitions and events will carry a charge.
Find out more about V&A East here.
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Header image credit: V&E East