FREE daily See our new opening hours Plan your visit For families For schools Collections
Menu
  • Museum of London
    • Permanent galleries
      • London Before London
      • Roman London
      • Medieval London gallery
      • War, Plague & Fire
      • Expanding City gallery
      • People's City Gallery
      • World City
      • The London 2012 Cauldron
    • What's on
      • Exhibitions and displays
      • Walks
      • Talks
      • Workshops
      • Tours
    • Plan your visit
      • Find us
      • Museum accessibility
      • Eating and drinking
      • Floor plan
      • Shop
      • Group visits
  • Museum of London Docklands
    • Permanent galleries
      • No. 1 Warehouse
      • Trade Expansion
      • London, Sugar & Slavery
      • City and River
      • Sailortown
      • First Port of Empire
      • Warehouse of the World
      • Docklands at War
      • New Port, New City
      • Mudlarks children's gallery
    • What's on
      • Exhibitions and displays
      • Walks
      • Talks
      • Workshops
      • Free events
      • Havering Hoard
    • Plan your visit
      • Find us
      • Museum accessibility
      • Eating and drinking
      • Floor plan
      • Shop
      • Group visits
  • West Smithfield
  • Discover

    Discover London Through History

    View all
    A bronze neck ring or torc found in the Harper Road burial associated image Hidden London

    Powerful women in late Iron Age London: the Harper Road burial

    Evidence for women’s power in prehistoric London

    Vishnu-statuette-small.jpg Rivers

    Mudlarks: rescuing relics from the river

    How do the ancient artefacts found in the river Thames end up on display?

    Carved head representing a fashionably dressed young woman with a 'wimple' or neck cloth under her chin, associated image Hidden London

    Bioarchaeological evidence for Black women in 14th century London

    What can bones can tell us about Black women in Medieval London?

    Portrait of Emma Hamilton 1791 © The Metropolitan Museum Behind the scenes

    Emma Hamilton’s copy of Haydn’s The Creation

    An in-depth look at Emma Hamilton, the famous regency-era model and actress, through her very own copy of The Creation held in the museum’s library.

  • Shop
  • Support us

    Support us

    • School children looking at objects

      Reach every London schoolchild

    • Paddington Bear being cleaned by a conservator

      Celebrate the London collection

    • West Smithfield aerial visual - landing page image

      A new museum for London

      • Donate
      • Memberships
      • Corporate partnerships
      • Volunteer
  • For families
  • For schools
  • Collections
Museum of London Docklands
  • Permanent galleries
  • What's on
  • Plan your visit

Trade Expansion

1600-1800

City and River

1800-1840

Permanent galleries

London, Sugar & Slavery

1600 – today

Discover how the trade in enslaved Africans and sugar shaped London

The museum’s building is central to this story. It was built at the time of the transatlantic slave trade, to store the sugar from the West Indian plantations where enslaved men, women and children worked.

  • Painting May Morning by John Collet, showing a traditional London parade in the 1780s.
  • Young visitors to the Museum of London Docklands view the names of slave ships that sailed from London.
  • The interesting life of Ignatius Sancho, book published in London 19th century.
  • Loaf of sugar and mold used to produce it.
  • 5. Mills papers.jpg
  • 6. Machete.jpg
  • Sugar bowl with an abolitionist design depicting a pleading enslaved African.
  • Three children watch a sound and light show in the Sugar and Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands.
  • 9. Table Wilberforce S&S.jpg
  • Diagram of a slave ship on display in the London Sugar and Slavery gallery.

Not to be missed on your visit

View slideshow

Painting May Morning by John Collet, showing a traditional London parade in the 1780s.

May Morning, by John Collet c. 1770

Find this painting showing a black servant joining in a traditional London festival in the 1770s, at the same time as the slave trade was in full swing.

Young visitors to the Museum of London Docklands view the names of slave ships that sailed from London.

See the slave ships that set sail from London

See the names, captains, owners and destinations of the ships that sailed from London to trade in enslaved Africans - whose names were not been recorded.

The interesting life of Ignatius Sancho, book published in London 19th century.

Letters of the late Ignatius Sancho, an African, 1782

Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship in the mid-Atlantic and brought to England at the age of two. His best-selling book was the first prose published in Britain by an African author.

Loaf of sugar and mold used to produce it.

Sugar mold and loaf

The slave plantations of the Caribbean were driven by Britain's craving for sugar. In London the processed sugar was made into sugar loaves using molds like these.

5. Mills papers.jpg

The business of slavery

Read the Mills Plantation Archive, books and letters of the London slave-owning Mills family- including a strange correspondence with an enslaved man named "Pembroke".

6. Machete.jpg

Machete

This large knife was made in Birmingham, England. Tools like these were used on slave plantations in the West Indies, and traded for enslaved Africans.

Sugar bowl with an abolitionist design depicting a pleading enslaved African.

Anti-slavery sugar bowl

This sugar bowl is hand painted with a pleading African slave. Campaigners for the abolition of slavery wanted to remind British people of the slaves who produced their sugar.

Three children watch a sound and light show in the Sugar and Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands.

See and hear the stories of the enslaved

An immersive sound and light show plays in the gallery every fifteen minutes, exploring the lives of some of the people bound up in the slave trade.

9. Table Wilberforce S&S.jpg

Fighting for freedom

Explore the efforts of those who fought to end slavery, from Caribbean revolutionaries to British campaigners. This table was owned by abolitionist MP Thomas Buxton.

Diagram of a slave ship on display in the London Sugar and Slavery gallery.

The Liverpool slave ship Brookes

This infamous diagram shows how enslaved Africans were packed into ships to cross the Atlantic. 609 men, women & children were carried in terrible squalor aboard this slaver.

Gallery access

The gallery is open during the museum's normal hours:

10am-5pm, Wednesday-Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday)

The gallery is on the third floor and can be accessed by lift.

Free entry, timed ticket

London, Sugar and Slavery also of interest

Iyamide Thomas inspects a dress before it goes on display.

Meet the Krios

A display telling the story of a unique people who overcame a legacy of enslavement.

Find out more

windrush-discover.jpg

Windrush stories

72 years ago, the ship Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks, Essex. Discover how it changed London forever.

Find out more

Primary pupils stand in front of a display about slavery on a visit to the  Museum of London Docklands

Bring the kids

Extensive free resources for families visiting the gallery.

Families page

Museum of London

MapContact

Museum of London Docklands

MapContact
  • About us
  • Friends membership
  • Donate
  • Volunteer
  • Jobs
  • Families
  • Schools
  • Universities
  • News room
  • Venue hire
  • Supporting London museums
  • Group visits

Museum of London registered charity number 1139250

  • Accessibility
  • Legal
  • Copyright
  • Museum of London Privacy Notice
  • Cookies policy
  • Follow us on Twitter for news, views and conversation about London

  • Join us on Facebook and share your views on current London issues

  • Browse our YouTube videos of teaching resources, London history, fashion and more

  • See objects from our collection, snapshots of events and share your visits to us on Instagram

Update from the Museum of London Docklands

The Museum of London and the Museum of London Docklands will continue to be closed to the public for the time being, but we are hoping to reopen on Wednesday 19 May in line with the Government's roadmap for lifting lockdown restrictions.

The health and wellbeing of our visitors, staff and community is of utmost importance to us and we will continue to closely review the advice from the Government and Public Health England around the COVID-19 situation.

While the museum buildings may be closed, we’re still open online with loads of content to keep you entertained. Check our website or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @MuseumOfLondon for all the latest news on when the museum doors will be open once more.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to welcoming you back soon!