London’s New Landmarks, Opened
Two V&A sites in Stratford, a rebuilt London Museum and a new National Gallery entrance give repeat clients reasons to return, most of them free.
For clients who think they have done London, the city has spent 2024 to 2026 opening new reasons to come back. The biggest shift is east, where the V&A has opened two sites on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. In the centre, the London Museum is preparing to reopen in the old Smithfield markets, and the National Gallery has a new front door. Most of it is free, which makes it easy to add to an itinerary that is already booked.
V&A East Storehouse, Stratford (opened May 2025)
The V&A’s working store opened on 31 May 2025 in the former 2012 Olympics media centre, now Here East. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, it spans four levels and 16,000 square metres and holds more than 250,000 objects, 350,000 books and 1,000 archives. Visitors walk among open racks, and the free Order an Object service lets anyone book an appointment to see a specific item up close. The David Bowie Centre, a display drawn from the Bowie archive, has a £5 ticket. This is the pick for design-literate clients who like to see how a museum works.
V&A East Museum, Stratford (opened April 2026)
The sister museum opened on 18 April 2026 on Carpenters Road, about eight minutes’ walk from Hackney Wick station. General entry is free. Two permanent galleries, “Why We Make”, show more than 500 objects from the V&A collection. The opening exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, runs until 10 January 2027 with tickets from £22.50. Combine both V&A sites in one half-day.
The London Museum, Smithfield (opening 2026)
The former Museum of London closed at London Wall and is moving into the Victorian General Market buildings at West Smithfield. Londonist reported in June 2026 that the new London Museum will open on Saturday 28 November 2026, with free entry to its permanent galleries and late openings on Fridays and Saturdays; the museum’s own site says it remains on track for 2026. The collection runs to more than seven million objects, including the Lord Mayor’s Coach and the Cheapside Hoard, with galleries in the former railway vaults below. The 1960s Poultry Building follows in 2028. Confirm the date before promising it for a late-November trip.
National Gallery Sainsbury Wing (reopened May 2025)
The gallery reopened its Sainsbury Wing on 10 May 2025 after a two-year closure, timed to its 200th anniversary. Selldorf Architects and Purcell created a larger public space outside, a double-height foyer with daylight, a new restaurant and bar, and clear sightlines through to the original 1830s building. Entry to the collection stays free. Clients now arrive on Trafalgar Square through a far more generous entrance, and it is the natural meeting point for the gallery’s 2026 to 2027 exhibitions.
Natural History Museum gardens (opened July 2024)
Five acres of redesigned gardens wrap the South Kensington building, greeted by Fern, a bronze diplodocus. The Evolution Garden traces 540 million years of life on Earth, and the Nature Discovery Garden doubles as a research site. Entry is free, and the museum says more than five million people visited in the first year. A good add-on for families before or after the museum.
Still worth knowing: Battersea and the Elizabeth line
Battersea Power Station reopened in October 2022 as a shopping, dining and residential district, served by the Northern line extension. Its Lift 109 takes visitors 109 metres up a chimney in a glass lift to a 360-degree viewing platform; Londonist listed adult tickets from £15.90. The Elizabeth line, opened in May 2022, now links Heathrow, the West End, the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford. Transport for London says it carried more than 500 million journeys in its first two and a half years and is the UK’s busiest railway service. In practice, it puts the new east London museums within easy reach of a Mayfair hotel.
Plan it
- Do Stratford as one outing. Storehouse and Museum sit a short walk apart; book an Order an Object slot ahead, and take the Elizabeth line or a driver.
- Use free entry as flexibility. Most of these places need no ticket, so they work as rainy-day options or between fixed bookings.
- Hold London Museum dates loosely. Treat the 28 November 2026 opening as reported, and check for timed-entry requirements in the opening weeks.
- Watch for: London Museum booking details, and V&A East’s spring 2027 exhibition programme.
Sources
- Blooloop, V&A East Storehouse opening
- Time Out London, V&A East Museum opening
- V&A, exhibitions including David Bowie Centre
- Londonist, London Museum opening date
- London Museum
- National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing reopening release
- Natural History Museum, gardens release
- Londonist, Lift 109
- Transport for London, Elizabeth line 500 million journeys
Catherine Crowe is Pacific Market Editor at Not An Atlas, leading our Australia and New Zealand coverage from just outside Wellington, on the southern coast of New Zealand's North Island, by way of Canada. A speech-language pathologist, mother and former model, she travels the way she listens: closely, and for the story underneath. She still writes on family and wellness travel, and the long-haul logistics of both.