THE ULTIMATE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

A Victorian child's abacus, a 15th-century palace dome and a Cristóbal Balenciaga evening gown... the newly opened V&A Storehouse, visited by the Princess of Wales this week, allows the public to get up close and personal with its vast collection

- By Dominic Bliss

WANDER round the miles of shelf space at the V&A East Storehouse — the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new attraction in Aast London - and it feels like you’re perusing precious heirlooms in the nation’s attic. Thousands of antiques, artworks, treasures and trinkets are on public display here, stacked floor to ceiling in the 20-metre-high main hangar at the repository in Stratford, once part of the broadcasting centre for the 2012 Olympic Games. Many still sit in their wooden crates, secured by straps, or wedged onto their metal shelves.

Crucially, very few are behind glass. If you were mischievous — and the museum curators hope to goodness you won’t be — you could run your grubby fingers all over these priceless artefacts.

“We've taken a risk-based approach,” senior curator Georgia Haseldine says of the unusual display system.

“This is an agreement of trust between us and the people who are looking around.”

The items on display appear to be stacked randomly. One minute, you'll be admiring a bust of Emperor Nero, the next you'll spot a mirrored electric guitar that once belonged to the American rock band Kiss.

A British bicycle from the 1950s hangs rather uncomfortably next to a South African throwing spear from the 19th century. A Victorian child’s abacus sits close to a sheet metal traffic sign from the 1960s.