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    • Our London Wall museum is now closed to visitors, but is still available for venue hire and private events.

      The new museum coming in 2026 will be situated at the heart of the capital’s historic Smithfield area next to Farringdon.

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    Discover London Through History

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    From a group of images relating to Shoreditch College for the Garment Trades, June 1955. The image shows a student doing machine embroidery on a Cornely machine. Fashion

    Why fashion manufacturing moved away from London?

    From the 1940s onwards, many London-based fashion makers struggled to retain their base in the capital. Here’s why.

    Moss Bros 100 anniversary catalogue Fashion

    How Moss Bros transformed with London’s fashion industry

    Moss Bros, one of the longest-surviving Jewish-founded firms in London fashion, has achieved longevity by embracing change. Here’s how.

    Iyamide Thomas and MoL conservator working on a Krio headdress Behind the Scenes

    Why are you touching that object without gloves?

    All you need to know about glove-wearing while handling objects at the Museum of London.

    Youth, at South Bank, 1951
The Festival of Britain cast of Youth outside the ’51 Bar. (© Estate of Daphne Hardy Henrion)
Hidden London

    Youth: a rare, experimental Festival of Britain sculpture by Daphne Henrion

    What makes this rare sculpture by artist Daphne Hardy Henrion that has survived from the 1951 Festival of Britain special?

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Expanding City

1670s-1850s

World City

1950s – today

Permanent galleries

People's City gallery

1850s - 1940s

By 1850 London was the wealthiest & most powerful city in the world, but also the most crowded

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While many thrived in the prosperous imperial city, others suffered great hardship and poverty. All Londoners shared the impact of massive population growth and the experience of two world wars.

  • Taxi from 1908 in the People
  • Selfridges lift in the People
  • Children examine the Booth Poverty Map interactive display.
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  • Victorian-Walk-2.jpg
  • Victorian Walk_3 barber.jpg
  • Suffragette hunger strike medal.
  • women-air-raid-moore.jpg
  • Facade of the Lyons corner shop on display in the Museum of London People
  • Group of schoolchildren view an interactive exhibit on the Second World War.

Not to be missed on your visit

View slideshow

Taxi from 1908 in the People's city gallery.

Taxi, 1908

This period saw the first motor vehicles on London's city streets, gradually replacing horse-drawn taxis, carts and buses.

Selfridges lift in the People's city gallery.

Selfridges lift, 1928

This elegantly decorated lift was installed in the Selfridges department store in 1928. The panels depict cranes and the signs of the zodiac.

Children examine the Booth Poverty Map interactive display.

Step back in time with our Booth Poverty Map interactive

The Descriptive Map of London Poverty compiled by Charles Booth in 1889 showed the extremes of affluence and squalor in London. Explore it and find where you would have lived.

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The suffragette display

Part of one of the most complete displays of suffragette material in Britain. Find out more about the 1,000 women who suffered imprisonment in their fight for the right to vote.

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Explore the Victorian Walk

Our immersive Victorian Walk experience recreates the winding streets of 19th century London. Do a little window shopping at the toy shop, tobacconist, tailor or pawnbroker and get a taste of life in Victorian London.

Victorian Walk_3 barber.jpg

See the Victorian barber's chair

A dozen Victorian street trades are built into the Victorian Walk, from a barber to an old-fashioned toy shop.

Suffragette hunger strike medal.

Suffragette hunger strike medal, 1912

This hunger strike medal was presented to the suffragette Florence Haig on her release from prison. Suffragettes refused food in prison to protest against political oppression of women.

women-air-raid-moore.jpg

Women in a shelter: 1941, painted by Henry Moore

Artist Henry Moore created a series of drawings illustrating London during the Second World War. Here Londoners are shown sleeping in improvised shelters in tube stations during the Blitz.

Facade of the Lyons corner shop on display in the Museum of London People's City gallery.

Reconstructed Lyon's corner house

This window dates from 1922 and comes from J. Lyons Corner House restaurant in Coventry Street near Piccadilly Circus.

Group of schoolchildren view an interactive exhibit on the Second World War.

Step inside our Blitz interactive

Explore the stories of Londoners during the Second World War. A fifty kilogram German-made incendiary bomb, Sprengbrand C50, hangs in mid-air.

Gallery access

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

10am-5pm, Monday-Sunday

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

Also of interest

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Votes for Women virtual exhibition

Explore the extraordinary struggle to achieve female representation in parliament in this free online display.

Find Out More

suffragette_poster_parade_490x295px.jpg

Who were the Suffragettes?

Find out all the fascinating facts about who the Suffragettes were, what they did, and what they achieved in this introductory article.

Find out more

A war scene of shelterers sleeping on steps at Queensway Tube Station. Joseph Batò’s watercolour depicts people sheltering on the stairs of Queensway Underground station during an air raid.

See inside London's Blitz shelters

Learn how war artists recorded the Underground at the height of the Second World War.

Read now

Museum of London Docklands

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