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Libraries, museums and bookstores: Museum of London

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Opening Hours

The museum is open 7 days a week,
from 10am to 5pm.

How to get there?

Museum of London,
150 London Wall,
EC2Y 5HN

The closest stations are :

  • Barbican
  • St Paul's
  • Liverpool Street
  • Farringdon
  • Cannon Street

 

 

Museum of London Docklands,
No.1 Warehouse,
West India Quay,
London E14 4AL

The closest stations are :

  • Canary Wharf
  • West India Quay

 

About the Museum of London

The history of this museum goes back to 1826 when the Guildhall Museum, focusing on archeology, was founded in 1826. The London Museum, which had wider interests - modern objects, paintings and costumes -  was established in 1912. After the Second World War, those two museums amalgamated and formed the Museum of London. The current site where the museum is located was opened in 1976 by Queen Elizabeth II. 

The museum contains 8 permanent galleries :

  • London Before London 
  • Roman London
  • Medieval London
  • War, Plague and Fire
  • Expanding City
  • People's City
  • World City
  • The London 2012 Cauldron

The Museum will close in December 2022 so it can be moved to its new location, just a few minutes away from its current location. It will be renamed the London Museum. 

 

In 2003, The Museum of London Docklands opened at Canary Wharf. explaining the history of the River Thames, the growth of the Port of London and the docks' historical link to the Atlantic slave trade. It houses a large collection of historical artifacts, models, and pictures in 12 galleries and a children's gallery (Mudlarks).  The periods covered range from the first port on the Thames in Roman times to the closure of the central London docks in the 1970s and subsequent transformation of the area with commercial and residential developments.

Exhibitions