Tag Archives: east london

A museum that once existed in London, but is no more

Posted on by
Reply

DURING A VISIT to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s recently opened Store at London’s Olympic Park, I spotted an interesting vitrine containing artefacts from India. The small collection was accompanied by an informative label, which tells the viewer that these objects were once housed in a museum that no longer exists – London’s India Museum. This establishment existed from 1801 until 1879.

The India Museum was founded by the British East India Company (‘EIC’). Designed to acquaint visitors with India’s resources and industries, it was housed in the company’s headquarters in Leadenhall Street. After the so-called Indian Mutiny (1857-1858: First War of Independence), the EIC lost its role as the British administrator of India. It was replaced by the government-controlled India Office.  

In 1851, the India Museum was a major contributor to the Indian section of Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. Later, the museum continued to participate in international exhibitions that followed. In 1861, the museum moved to Fife House in Whitehall, then to the attics of the newly built India Office in 1869, and from 1875 then to the ‘Eastern Galleries’ on the exhibition site to the west of the present Exhibition Road in South Kensington.

The India Museum was closed in 1879. Then as related in the Victoria and Albert’s website:

“… the collections were dispersed. In broad terms, the natural history specimens were divided between the Royal Botanic Gardens and the nascent British Museum (Natural History) – today the Natural History Museum – according to their nature. Antiquities and some parts of the ethnographic collections went to the British Museum. The bulk of the manufactured objects, however, were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, forerunner of today’s V&A.”

It is a few of those 19,000 objects transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum that we saw in the vitrine at the V&A’s amazing open access warehouse at the V&A Store at Olympic Park. While we were at the Store, we saw many other objects that must have been brought from India. No doubt, some of those had once been on display in the museum that exists no more.

A warehouse filled with wonderful artefacts in east London

Posted on by
Reply

MANY MUSEUMS INCLUDING London’s Victoria and Albert (‘V&A’) own far more items than they have room to display them. The objects for which there is no gallery space to display them usually lie hidden away in museums’ storerooms. Following the example of a museum in Rotterdam, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the V&A has created an open access storeroom, where members of the public can see many of the objects that were formerly hidden away from view in the museum’s old warehouses.

V&A East Storehouse, which was designed by the American studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, opened its doors to public visitors on 31 May 2025. It is in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park near East London’s Stratford Station and West Ham’s football stadium.   We had to queue for about 20 minutes before gaining admittance on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was well worth waiting to see this incredible creation.

The parts of the Storehouse which are open to the public are arranged on three floors. The upper two are on galleries that overlook the lowest floor. Stepping into this edifice is rather like entering a huge B&Q or Ikea warehouse filled with shelving. However, there the similarity ends. The shelves are covered with an amazing variety of artefacts, ranging from ancient to modern times, and sourced from all over the world. There is also a viewing platform that allows visitors to watch the museum’s conservators working. Another room houses only one exhibit: an enormous backdrop that Picasso painted for the 1924 performance of the ballet, “Le Train Bleu”. It measures 10.4 by 11 metres, and is the artist’s largest known painting.

Without going into much detail, it seems that whoever arranged the artefacts in the Storehouse had a great sense of humour. For example, a twentieth century chair is placed right next to a rococo chest of drawers, and a fragment from a mediaeval church is placed immediately above an early example of a television. Few of the artefacts are labelled apart from bearing their museum inventory numbers. Dotted around this contemporary Aladdin’s Cave of cultural treasures, there are several exhibits with labels that explain various aspects of running the V&A and its curatorial philosophy.

With good transport connections to central London, there is no excuse not to visit the city’s latest fascinating cultural experience: the V&A Storehouse.

Asteroid at Genesis

Posted on by
Reply

AFTER WATCHING THE trailer for Wes Anderson’s latest film “Asteroid City”, which was released in the UK in June 2023, I could barely wait to see the movie. We chose to view it in a cinema that I had passed several times in the past, but never entered – Genesis in London’s Mile End Road, not far from Stepney Green Underground station. It has an Art Deco façade and a long history (described in full on https://genesiscinema.co.uk/GenesisCinema.dll/Page?p=3&m=mm).

In brief, the site occupied by Genesis was first the location of a pub called Lusby’s, which opened in 1848 and later became a music hall. After it was destroyed by fire, the Paragon Theatre, designed by Frank Matcham (1854-1920), opened in 1885. Matcham was responsible for the design of many of London’s theatres. Between 1912 and 1989, the theatre was used as a cinema, and had many different owners. It closed in 1989. The cinema’s website includes the following episode which occurred in 1963:

“Princess Margeret was scheduled to attend the royal premiere of Barbara Windsor’s film ‘Sparrows Can’t Sing’. However, as notorious East End gangsters, The Kray twins were also attending, royal protocol meant that her husband Lord Snowdon had to attend in her place. So, needless to say, everyone ended up at the afterparty at the pub over the road… the Kray twins’ Kit Kat Club.”

In 1998, Tyrone Walker-Hebborn, an electrician, fell in love with the deserted cinema, refurbished it, and opened it as the Genesis Cinema in 1999. Having seen multiplex cinemas in the USA, he converted Genesis into a multi-screen cinema complex. During the covid19 pandemic, Tyrone took advantage of the fact that nobody could enter his cinemas, and refurbished many aspects of the building including the foyer and bar. Today, Genesis is a pleasant place both to enjoy a drink and to watch a film – and the ticket prices are reasonable by London standards.

As for “Asteroid City”, which has received many rave reviews, I was disappointed. Although the film has many wonderful moments, I did not think it was as wonderful as Anderson’s films such as “Darjeeling Express” and “Grand Hotel Budapest”. On a positive note, the Genesis cinema complex is a place I hope to visit often.