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Press releases
- 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
- Digital visions of London, faces of the capital photographed and portrait painting in exchange for a favour
- 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
- Looking for Londoners and Show Space
- 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
- City Now City Future: a conversation about the past, present and future of our cities
- 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
- Museum of London x Craft Central pop-up opens for Christmas 2016
- 17th century fire engine restored for Great Fire exhibition
- Museum of London boosts Great Fire collections with mysterious manuscript
- After dark at The Night Museum
- 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 archaeological exhibition opens at the Museum of London
- New research to shed fresh light on the impact of industrialisation
- Our statement on Fabric
- Legendary London Stone installed at the Museum of London
- Behind the Scenes of the Museum of London
- New Great Fire website to mark 350th anniversary
- Met Police’s Crime Museum revealed at Museum of London
- Hello London, Hello Barbados
- Sir Edward Lister joins Museum of London Board of Governors
- Skeletons: Our Buried Bones
- Another record-breaking year for the Museum of London
- West Smithfield International Design Competition launched
- Stomping Grounds: Dick Scott-Stewart photographs on display
- Museum of London launches new website to increase visits and ticket sales
- Major new gallery at Museum of London Docklands explores history of the world's largest docks
- Museum of London sets the City on fire with second Great Fire 1666 Minecraft map
- Never-before-seen archaeological artefacts from forthcoming exhibition, Fire! Fire! unveiled
- West Smithfield Design Competition shortlist announced
- Stanton Williams and Asif Khan to design new Museum of London at West Smithfield
Museum opens most theatrical exhibition ever to mark 350th anniversary of the Great Fire
20 July 2016
Fire! Fire!
Museum of London
23 July 2016 – 17 April 2017
Sponsored by Eversheds
This Saturday the Museum of London opens its most theatrical exhibition to date, Fire! Fire! The exhibition combines a variety of sights, sounds, smells, textures and interactive exhibits to immerse visitors in the events leading up to, during and after the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The exhibition begins on an imagined Pudding Lane on the eve of the Great Fire, brought to life through theatrical timber set works inspired by 17th-century illustrations as well as silhouettes and sounds of Londoners going about their everyday lives. Entering Thomas Farriner’s bakery, visitors then witness the rapid progress of the Great Fire as it spreads across a map of London from 1666 projected on to a giant loaf of bread.
Nestled amongst the remains of fire damaged houses, the Museum of London’s rich Great Fire collections include a variety of scarred and warped household objects such as pottery, plates, bricks, tiles, ceramics and glass which were uncovered in excavations at the end of the 20th century. A selection of these rarely seen artefacts can be touched and more closely examined with microscopes and magnifying glasses. Further into the gallery, excavated archaeological iron objects can be analysed with X-rays, revealing some surprising details.
One of the star objects is the museum’s fire engine from the late 1670s, faithfully restored for the exhibition by Croford Coachbuilders using traditional techniques and materials. Other pieces of firefighting equipment on display include a squirt, a leather bucket and a fire hook, which are all put to the test in a touch screen game challenging players to save a row of houses from the Great Fire. A half-finished piece of embroidery, a pair of bed hangings and a burnt Geneva Bible all reportedly escaped the full wrath of the flames and are installed alongside a trunk encouraging visitors to consider what they would rescue if faced with the same fate.
An examination into the aftermath of the fire reveals the devastating effect it had on both London and Londoners alike. Within a makeshift tent overlooking Wenceslaus Hollar’s panorama of destroyed London, audio extracts from Samuel Rolle, Thomas Vincent and others detail the personal suffering of the 100,000 displaced Londoners who fled to the fields around the City of London, 80% of which was destroyed. Alongside plans to rebuild from the likes of Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn, visitors can arrange blocks of houses and iconic buildings on top of a map of the City, to resemble the previous street layout or use their imagination to create something new.
Fire! Fire! runs from 23 July 2016 – 17 April 2017 and is accompanied by a programme of talks and events. Tickets are priced from £8 for adults and £4 for children online, with family tickets also available. For further information, please visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk/fire-fire.
The Fire! Fire! exhibition and associated programme is part of Great Fire 350, a programme of events and activities to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. Further information can be found at www.visitlondon.com/greatfire350.
-ENDS-
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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 80,000 objects with more being added. www.museumoflondon.org.uk.
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