London's V&A museum has for some time now been expanding its shopping outlets, and its latest retail undertaking - a dedicated book store which opens tomorrow (21st March) - promises to offer visitors to this South Kensington stalwart an even more comprehensive retail experience
see more images of the V&A's new bookstore
The museum, of course, has always sold books - no self-respecting institution would dare not to – but this timely enterprise sees the gallery’s existing collection extended beyond recognition, with everything from colouring-in to cultural theory included.
The store has been built with students and specialists in mind, and has been designed to both accentuate and compliment the massive breadth of the V&A’s cross-cultural collection.
Books covering every aspect of art, design, fashion and beyond are available – and bookstore purists will breathe a sigh of relief as the new space has been designed with a library-esque atmosphere firmly in mind.
The bookshop has been put together in collaboration with shelf-making virtuosos, Vitsoe, and utilisies their legendarily simple 606 universal shelving system - un-changed from Dieter Rams’s original 1960’s design.
ADDRESS
V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London
SW7 2RL
-
At Design Miami Paris, an artful menagerie tells a story of scent and natureVikram Goyal and Sissel Tolaas present ‘The Soul Garden’ at Design Miami Paris (until 26 October 2025), ‘a contemporary fable where the animals take new forms, reimagined for the world we live in today’
-
Check in at Aman Rosa Alpina, a modern Alpine cocoonSan Cassiano’s historic hotel has been reborn as a pared-back Aman refuge in the heart of the Dolomites
-
‘It’s really the workplace of the future’: inside JPMorganChase’s new Foster + Partners-designed HQThe bronze-clad skyscraper at 270 Park Avenue is filled with imaginative engineering and amenities alike. Here’s a look inside
-
Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
-
A life’s work: Hans Ulrich Obrist on art, meaning and being drivenAs the curator, critic and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries publishes his memoir, ‘Life in Progress’, he tells us what gets him out of bed in the morning
-
Ed Ruscha and Ruthie Rogers team up on zingy new cookbookEd Ruscha and friend Ruthie Rogers, chef and River Café co-founder, have teamed up on a cookbook with a difference
-
Thomas Prior’s photography captures the uncanny fragility of American lifeA new book unites two decades of the photographer’s piercing, uneasy work
-
Cult classic ‘Teenagers in Their Bedrooms’ captures the angst of being a teenAre 1990s teens so different? Three decades after its original release, this photography book by Adrienne Salinger has been published again, by DAP
-
Make the Booker Prize shortlist your new reading listThis year’s Booker Prize shortlist captures the emotional complexity of our times, with stories of fractured families, shifting identities and the search for meaning in unfamiliar places
-
How to be butch: Clark Henley’s sharp, satirical and playful manual is back in printThe 1982 classic, ‘The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It’, full of tongue-in-cheek advice, is available once again
-
We are all fetishists, says Anastasiia Fedorova in her new book, which takes a deep dive into kinkIn ‘Second Skin’, writer and curator Fedorova takes a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics we have fetishised
