I went to the V&A's new David Bowie Centre in Stratford before it opens to the public this weekend - here's what it's like

"Bowie had something like 90,000 individual items stashed away in a private archive in the US. And then he donated the whole thing to the V&A, which took possession of it following its use in the blockbuster touring exhibition David Bowie Is ... To be clear, the V&A's brand new David Bowie Centre is not a permanent home for the David Bowie Is ... It's an archive."

"Opened to much fanfare back in May , the Storehouse is an enormously impressive building, like stepping into a fantastically reimagined version of the final scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark , floor upon floor of artfully arranged furniture, clothing and other paraphernalia from the V&A's colossal collection on full public display. The David Bowie Centre occupies a corner of the second floor and it does, in fact, include a small exhibition that gathers together some fascinating items."

"The David Bowie Centre occupies a corner of the second floor and it does, in fact, include a small exhibition that gathers together some fascinating items. Of course there are clothes: the frock coat, a skimpy lil' Ziggy number. But it's the written stuff that really fascinates - a terse rejection letter from Apple Records; a somewhat bemused testimony to his hard-working nature from the then 19-year-old David Jones's dad, presumably written for a prospective label."

David Bowie preserved roughly 90,000 items spanning his entire career and donated the collection to the V&A. The V&A Storehouse functions as a permanent public archive that houses the David Bowie Centre rather than a continuing exhibition. The Storehouse offers large-scale displays across multiple floors showcasing clothing, furniture and ephemera from the museum's collection. The Bowie holdings include stage costumes, rejection letters, family testimonies and abundant written material that reveal creative process and personal history. Public access and archival organization enable research, reinterpretation and new public encounters with material culture. The archive model highlights the value of preserving and digitizing primary sources.

Read at Time Out London