I can only marvel when I consider that the footprint upon which the newly erected V&A East museum now stands was, for many decades, characterised by hard labour and heavy industry. The area, once full of factories, warehouses and poverty, was described by novelists such as Charles Dickens in deeply unflattering terms. In 1857, he wrote: “Many select such a dwelling place because they are already based below the point of enmity to filth: poorer labourers live there, because they cannot afford to