Catherine goes behind the scenes at museum stores

The Princess of Wales has visited the Victoria and Albert Museum’s storehouse in East London, as it opens its vast collection to more people.

The museum, which has its main building in South Kensington, has more than 600,000 objects in newly-opened store rooms at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Catherine had a behind-the-scenes tour, where she praised how the public will be able to get a close view of so many historic items.

The V&A East Storehouse is a purpose-built museum store, intended to widen access and “unlock” its huge collection of art, design and fashion items, much of which is not usually on display.

“What a fantastic idea to have all these pieces to learn from – so they’re not just behind the scenes and stored away somewhere. You can see them in person and up close,” said Catherine.

“What an opportunity for everyone to see historic pieces first hand,” she said, praising the “eclectic” collection.

Catherine was shown around the store’s cavernous rooms by the museum’s director Tristram Hunt and she saw examples of conservation work on textiles in the collection.

Mr Hunt showed the princess some examples of textiles by the Victorian designer, William Morris, and she said how much she liked the foliage design.

She spoke to the museum director about how some of the historic textiles on show could still look contemporary.

The museum stores, free to visitors, has an “order an object” service which allows visitors to book an appointment to see an object close up and get information about it from museum staff.

According to royal sources, the purpose of the visit was to highlight the importance of creative opportunity and to celebrate the “power of creativity”.