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Museum of London
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

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.
  • Find out more about the 1000 women who suffered imprisonment in their fight for the right to vote.
  • A view of a Victorian shopfront in the Victorian Walk at the Museum of London.
  • 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

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Gallery access

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

10am – 5.40pm

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

Entry free, no ticket required.

People's City also of interest

Horse from Beasts of London

Beasts of London

This interactive experience guides you through London's animal history.

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A section of the Prevost panorama, now on display at the Museum of London.

London's lost landscape

See our free display of the epic Prévost panorama.

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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.

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