Museums in Newham, London (2026)

East London’s Newham – formed when the old boroughs of East and West Ham combined – is home to Stratford, the Olympic Park, and West Ham United. Investment is pouring into the area, particularly around the Olympic Park, which recently welcomed V&A East Storehouse.

This working storehouse is probably Newham’s best museum. It’s a genuinely unique destination – a working storehouse, which opens up the V&A’s vast collection to visitors. Over four floors you can see treasures from the collection – everything from ancient statues, to a guitar used by Kiss, to modernist furniture, often all next to each other – and see conservation in action.

It’s also home to some large, reassembled structures, previously held in storage. The most amazing is the Torrijos ceiling, a spectacular 15th-century gilded wooden ceiling from a lost palace near Toledo in Spain, reassembled in its entirety. Then finally, there’s also the David Bowie Centre, showcasing a rotating exhibition from Bowie’s personal archive, and something of a pilgrimage if you’re a Bowie fan like me.

All of this is totally free to visit, and makes the V&A East Storehouse one of the best museums in East London.

Elsewhere you’ll find the Discover Children’s Story Centre and the House Mill – the world’s largest surviving tidal mill, reflecting the area’s deep industrial heritage. You can also see this deep industrial heritage in some of Newham’s buildings – some as the stunning art deco Millennium Mill, a former flour mill, which I wrote about as part of my Building of the Week series.

Soon, the borough will have another new museum – the V&A East museum, opening in April 2026, focused on design and culture.

Sadly, Newham lacks a dedicated local museum to tell the borough’s rich history – something the grassroots group Heritage Newham is campaigning to change.

Explore all museums in Newham below. You’ll also find museums in nearby boroughs further down the page.

Museums near Newham

Across East London are some of London’s best and most interesting museums. To Newham’s West are some of my absolute favourites: the Museum of London Docklands, telling London’s history through the RIver Thames, Hackney’s excellent Museum of the Home, of course the Tower of London, and many more besides.

Further north are a couple of interesting industrial history museums dotted across the Lee Valley: the Markfield Beam Engine & Museum and the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum. But overall, East London is one of the best parts of the capital for museums.

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