In this section
Press releases
- The Museum of London celebrates city's sporting hero with new display on Harry Kane
- The Museum of London presents 'Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream', opening 17 June 2022
- Statue of Robert Milligan joins Museum of London collection
- 300 year old love message embroidered in human hair to go on display at the Museum of London Docklands
- Museum of London begins countdown to West Smithfield relocation
- Douglas Gilmore appointed Managing Director of Museum of London Docklands
- The Prince of Wales becomes Museum of London Patron
- The Clash’s Paul Simonon’s famous Fender Precision bass to go on display
- Stanton Williams and Asif Khan to design new Museum of London at West Smithfield
- Museum of London acquires ensemble inspired by the creativity of the Windrush generation
- Feeding Black: Community, Power & Place opening 16 July at Museum of London Docklands
- Museum of London acquires NHS sign from ZSL London Zoo’s Giraffe House as part of Collecting COVID
- Museum of London sites set to reopen 19 May with extensions of Dub London: Bassline of a City and Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery
- Museum of London acquires Mayor of Lambeth’s homemade ceremonial chain as part of Collecting COVID project
- Museum of London acquires ‘viral’ Tweets for Collecting COVID
- Weavers’ Company donate £100,000 to the Museum of London’s move to Smithfield
- Museum of London receives Trump Baby blimp ahead of the Presidential Inauguration
- Museum of London to collect COVID dreams
- Arsenal’s captain donates Black Lives Matter shirt to the Museum of London
- Dub London: Bassline of a City opening 2 October at the Museum of London
- Public statement October 2020
- London Sugar & Slavery gallery
- New major exhibition Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery opens 11 September at the Museum of London Docklands
- Robert Milligan statue statement
- Museum of London sites to reopen 6 August with four-week extension of The Clash: London Calling display
- Public statement
- Museum of London releases first ever recorded soundscapes of London alongside new recordings of London in lockdown as part of Collecting COVID project
- Design concepts for new museum at West Smithfield revealed
- The Museum of London collects shared experiences of Ramadan in lockdown as part of Collecting COVID project
- Unheard oral histories are released by the Museum of London to mark Windrush Day
- Collecting Covid: the Museum of London seeks to mark unprecedented pandemic for the future
- Millicent Fawcett’s ‘Steadfastness and Courage’ brooch to go on permanent display for the first time
- Museum of London submits plans to create a new world-class cultural destination in West Smithfield
- King Charles I’s execution vest to go on display in new major exhibition
- Museum of London to celebrate Dub Reggae and its influence on the capital
- East End bastion Syd’s coffee stall to be donated to the Museum of London
- Free exhibit celebrating the making of The Clash’s ground-breaking album ‘London Calling’ now open
- Museum of London acquires extremely rare plate that belonged to Samuel Pepys
- The story of the Krios of Sierra Leone to be told in the Museum of London Docklands’ latest display
- Museum of London to host The Clash: London Calling exclusive free exhibit of over 100 personal items
- The largest ever Bronze Age hoard in London has been discovered
- Designs for Museum of London’s new West Smithfield home revealed
- Smithfield Street Party
- Museum of London hopes to acquire both the Trump Baby Blimp and the Sadiq Khan Blimp as part of their permanent collection
- Secret Rivers
- Beasts of London
- Recently acquired panorama goes on display for the first time at the Museum of London
- Museum of London appoints leading names to Board of Governors
- Earliest skull ever mudlarked from the Thames to go on display at the Museum of London
- Museum of London acquires beautiful panorama of lost Houses of Parliament
- Bengali arts and culture on show at the Museum of London Docklands family festival.
- Young Londoners to take over Museum of London this March
- Treasured children’s author Jacqueline Wilson’s latest book Wave Me Goodbye inspires family day at the Museum of London Docklands
- Adventures in Peter Pan’s Neverland at Museum of London Docklands
- Photography of Londoners and their pastimes on show at Museum of London
- Museum of London Docklands celebrates Chinese New Year this February half term
- Museum of London Docklands to showcase rare Roman sarcophagus in first public display
- “Reputational whitewashing” investigated in latest display at the Museum of London Docklands.
- Taste not waste: Be inspired by unique recipes using your leftover food for a more sustainable future London
- Whitechapel’s famous monster fatberg is coming to the Museum of London
- An Idea for a Future London open call winner announced
- London Visions: Hypothetical scenarios of a future London
- Rare George Cross medal goes on display at the Museum of London Docklands
- Smithfield street party: Museum of London celebrates 150 years of Smithfield markets
- Technology replacing jobs won’t halt our working spirit
- Learn how to code like a pro and celebrate digital technology at the Museum of London’s free family festival
- Votes for Women programme
- All aboard for the Maritime music festival
- New display reveals complex history of British Army’s West India Regiments
- Paddington returns to Museum of London
- Bonus Levels: Artist Lawrence Lek invites viewers to re-imagine future London
- The Museum of London hopes to acquire Whitechapel 'fatberg'
- The City is Ours: A Tale of New Cities
- Tracking London’s most talked about topics and emojis
- London Nights: Museum of London unveils the city at night in major photography exhibition
- Statement on 20 May 2017
- Malcolm Reading Consultants appointed to run West Smithfield International Design Competition
- What does the future hold for London and cities around the world?
- Museum of London releases third and final Great Fire 1666 Minecraft map
- Museum of London acquires 100 menswear items worn by townscape consultant Francis Golding
- 8,000 years of human history on display at the Museum of London Docklands
- Five Museum of London apprentices appointed
- Museum of London displays recently acquired Sutherland drawings in new exhibition of Blitz artwork
- Mayor of London and City of London Corporation pledge support for new Museum of London at West Smithfield
- Museum of London uses Minecraft to recreate the Great Fire of 1666
- Rare tools give insight into working lives of Roman Londoners at the Museum of London
- Museum of London opens most theatrical exhibition ever to mark 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London
- New display at the Museum of London traces the capital’s obsession with ice skating
- Historic vessels Knocker White and Varlet set sail to new home at Trinity Buoy Wharf
- Missing Bake Off? Take your taste buds back in time with 17th century gingerbread
- Rare Victoria Cross with mysterious story to go on display at the Museum of London
- Museum of London bolsters its art collections
- 17th century fire engine restored for Great Fire exhibition
- Museum of London boosts Great Fire collections with mysterious manuscript
- Major new gallery at Museum of London Docklands explores history of the world's largest docks
- Sir Edward Lister joins Museum of London Board of Governors
- West Smithfield Design Competition shortlist announced
- West Smithfield International Design Competition launched
- After dark at The Night Museum
- Another record-breaking year for the Museum of London
- New display about the life of ‘The Royal African’ and the slave trade
- Joe Corré, Jordan and Richard Boon to appear in an uncensored, live Punk.London debate
- People of Punk bring the year of celebration to an end
- Tunnel: the archaeology of Crossrail
- New research to shed fresh light on the impact of industrialisation
- Our statement on Fabric
- Behind the Scenes of the Museum of London
The City is Ours: A Tale of Two Cities
14 July 2017
The City is Ours
Museum of London
14 July 2017 – 2 January 2018
FREE major exhibition at the heart of the City Now City Future season
City Now City Future is sponsored by DLA Piper and supported by Bloomberg
The City is Ours, the Museum of London’s major exhibition opening today, will explore the key issues that affect Londoners and city dwellers all around the world.
Tackling affordable housing, effective urban planning, transport, air quality, green spaces, surveillance, smart city technology, diversity, activism and social cohesion, the exhibition presents the challenges that cities are faced with and the solutions that communities are coming up with to combat them.
The ground-breaking, interactive exhibition, created by the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris, is spread across three of the museum’s temporary exhibition spaces. Examining the huge changes happening to cities across the world and how their inhabitants are adapting in response, the free exhibition will be the museum’s first to be presented in both English and French.
Sharon Ament, Director of the Museum of London, said:
“Urban populations have skyrocketed in recent years, from just over 30% in 1950 to a projected 70% by 2050. In London too, recent estimates predict that its population will grow to nearly 10 million by 2024. In this age of the city we’re asking: what does the future hold for these urban metropolises and how can we contribute to their sustainability and survival?”
Key exhibits include:
- A nine-metre-wide film called Urban Earth that visualises data from major cities around the world to compare them on issues such as population size, public transport networks, CO2 emissions, green spaces, wealth, access to health care, and life expectancy.
- An interactive table mapping 25 London-based initiatives which all aim to improve city life, from affordable housing solutions and charities promoting social cohesion to sustainable food schemes and new pollution-sensing technology.
- An audio installation which translates mobile communications in Paris on New Year’s Eve 2014, the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ rally on 11 January 2015, and today into unique melodies.
- An Oculus Rift headset which offers visitors a virtual view from the rooftop of a Hong Kong skyscraper, to illustrate the impact of building upwards rather than outwards.
- A film about participative social housing in Chile led by architect Alejandro Aravena (winner of the 2016 Pritzker prize), a pioneering initiative to construct affordable basic housing units which families could develop, finish and customise themselves.
- A film about maintaining Milan’s residential towers, Bosco Verticale, the first examples of a ‘vertical forest’ which were conceived to promote metropolitan reforestation.
- A physical interactive which allows visitors to redesign a city of 500,000 people, moving the locations of business and residential districts to see the effects on traffic flow and CO2 emissions.
- A film explaining how infrastructure and policies to facilitate cycling in Copenhagen are intrinsic to achieving the city’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2025.
- A film highlighting San Francisco’s goal to recycle all waste by 2020 and the systems put in place to motivate and assist residents and businesses to recycle and compost.
- An interactive exhibit which enables visitors to operate and monitor CCTV cameras within the exhibition space and to reflect on the implications of increased surveillance.
- A film looking at how citizens are using mobile phones and social media to assemble en masse in public spaces, for pleasure or protest, from demonstrations in Tehran and Hong Kong to a worldwide flash mob in tribute to Michael Jackson.
- A film with four individuals reflecting on their experiences of moving to Rio de Janeiro; Tomomi, a professor from Japan; Mike, a doctor in musicology from Australia; Ali, a street trader from Senegal; and Yajenka, a tourist guide from Uruguay.
- A film about Medellín’s free cable car system which has connected outlying informal settlements to the centre and transformed one of the most dangerous cities in the world into a model for social cohesion.
The City is Ours opens on Friday 14 July 2017 and runs until 2 January 2018. This free, interactive, dual-language exhibition sits at the heart of City Now City Future, a year-long season at the Museum of London of over 100 events, exhibitions, displays and commissions that are exploring urban evolution in London and around the world.
#TheCityisOurs
#CityNowCityFuture
-ENDS-
Contact us
To contact the press team please visit the News Room page.
About The Museum of London
The Museum of London tells the ever-changing story of this great world city and its people, from 450,000 BC to the present day. Our galleries, exhibitions, displays and activities seek to inspire a passion for London and provide a sense of the vibrancy that makes the city such a unique place.
The museum is open daily 10am – 6pm and is FREE to all, and you can explore the Museum of London with collections online – home to 90,000 objects with more being added. www.museumoflondon.org.uk.
About City Now City Future
With more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas, the Museum of London’s City Now City Future season (May 2017 – April 2018) will examine the various challenges that an increasingly urbanised earth poses to the world and its inhabitants. At the heart of this year-long season of exhibitions, creative commissions, large-scale public events, talks and debates is The City is Ours, a dual-language exhibition from the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris which explores the ideas and innovations being developed by urban communities to improve how their cities work and people’s experience of living in them. The City Now City Future season is sponsored by DLA Piper and supported by Bloomberg.
About DLA Piper
DLA Piper is a global law firm located in more than 40 countries throughout Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning it to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world. For further information about our organisation and services, please visit our website: www.dlapiper.com.
About Bloomberg
Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength – delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately – is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s charitable activities, including his corporate, foundation and personal giving. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation and Public Health. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org.
About the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie
Located in Paris - La Villette, the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie is keen to ensure to make science accessible to all. Its fun and interactive approach aims to tackle science through discovery, questioning major challenges facing our world.