GetWiki

{{Short description|Museum in London documenting its history}}{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}

factoids

| type = History museum| former_name = London MuseumLondon WallBarbican, London, EC postcode area>EC2Y 5HNUnited KingdomNEWSPAPER=MUSEUM OF LONDON, 21 January 2023, WEBSITE=WWW.ALVA.ORG.UK, 21 January 2023, | director = Sharon AmentBarbican}}; {{lus|St Paul's}}weblink|museumoflondon.org.uk}}}}The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (founded in 1826) and of the London Museum (founded in 1911). From 1976 to 2022, its main site was located in the City of London on London Wall, close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and '70s to redevelop a bomb-damaged area of the city. In March 2015, the museum revealed plans to move to the General Market Building at the nearby Smithfield site. Reasons for the proposed move included the claim that the current site was difficult for visitors to find, and that by expanding, from 17,000 square metres to 27,000, a greater proportion of the museum's collection could be placed on display. In December 2022, the museum permanently closed its site at London Wall in preparation for reopening in 2026 at Smithfield Market as the London Museum.The museum has the largest urban history collection in the world, with more than six million objects.NEWS, Maev Kennedy, 20 May 2016, Off to market: Museum of London shows off its new Smithfield site, The Guardian,weblink 22 May 2016, It is primarily concerned with the social history of London and its inhabitants throughout time. Its collections include archaeological material, such as flint handaxes from the prehistoric Thames Valley, marble statues from a Roman temple called the London Mithraeum, and a cache of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery called the Cheapside Hoard. Its modern collections include large amounts of decorative objects, clothing and costumes, paintings, prints and drawings, social history objects, and oral histories. The museum continues to collect contemporary objects, such as the Whitechapel fatberg or the Trump baby blimp.The museum is part of a group that also includes two other locations: the Museum of London Docklands, which is based in West India Quay and remains open to the public; and Museum of London Archaeology, which conducts archaeological excavations both inside and outside London. The museum is jointly controlled and funded by the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority. Its current director is Sharon Ament.

History

The Guildhall Museum (1826–1976)

One of the two museums that were merged to form the Museum of London was the Guildhall Museum, founded by the City of London Corporation in 1826 when it received the gift of a Roman mosaic from Tower Street as "a suitable place for the reception of such Antiquities as relate to the City of London and Suburbs". As the collection grew, it was given a room in the London Guildhall. The museum focussed on archaeological remains from the City, and objects linked to the Corporation, and had a particularly strong collection of Roman objects. It was mostly inaccessible to the public until 1872, when work was begun on dedicated premises in Basinghall Street. During World War II, the museum closed so that the Corporation could use the building for other purposes, and after the war, in 1955, it re-opened in the Royal Exchange. However, this was not seen as a long-term satisfactory solution, and in 1960 the museum seriously started to engage with the scheme to merge with the London Museum.BOOK,weblink The Museum of London, 1985, London : Museum of London, Internet Archive, 978-0-904818-17-8, 3–10,

The London Museum (1912–1976)

The museum has its origins in, and derives much of its collection from, the London Museum, founded in 1911 by Viscount Esher and Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt and originally based in the State Apartments of Kensington Palace.BOOK, London Museum,weblink Guide to the London Museum, 1972, London, H.M.S.O., Internet Archive, 978-0-11-290114-3, 2nd, 1, It first opened to the public on 8 April 1912. Harcourt became the first Commissioner of Works, and the first Keeper was Guy Francis Laking. In 1913, it became a National Museum.(File:The Stuart Parlour at the London Museum, 1914.jpg|thumb|300x300px|The Stuart Parlour display at the London Museum in Lancaster House, 1914)In 1914, it moved to Lancaster House, which had been bought by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, soap magnate and founder of the model town of Port Sunlight, and given to the nation as a home for the London Museum.BOOK, Darton, F. J. Harvey (Frederick Joseph Harvey),weblink The London Museum, 1914, London : Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Smithsonian Libraries, viii, Visitors travelled through a mostly chronological route, entering the Prehistoric Room, the Roman Room, the Saxon and Early Norman Gallery, the Mediaeval Room, and finally a Jewellery Room before heading to the upper floor. Here, they would find the Tudor Room, the Early Seventeenth Century, the Late Seventeenth Century, a room with a large collection of porcelain, the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Room, and finally, the Costume Gallery.BOOK, Darton, F. J. Harvey (Frederick Joseph Harvey),weblink The London Museum, 1914, London : Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Smithsonian Libraries, xv, The museum also contained a basement which contained come exhibits from all eras, some of which were too large for the main galleries, and which could serve as an introduction to the collections. It included a Roman boat, a carriage belonging to the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, a parlour decorated in the Stuart style, and prison cells.BOOK, Darton, F. J. Harvey (Frederick Joseph Harvey),weblink The London Museum, 1914, London : Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Smithsonian Libraries, xiv, The Keeper of the London Museum from 1926 to 1944, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, proposed merging the London Museum with the Guildhall Museum as early as 1927, as the two museums had a significant overlap in their collections, but the scheme wasn't given serious thought until after both museums had been forced to close during World War II.BOOK,weblink The Museum of London, 1985, London : Museum of London, Internet Archive, 978-0-904818-17-8, 10, During the war, the Museum closed, and in 1945 it vacated Lancaster House so that the government could use the space for hospitality events. The trustees considered several sites for the new museum, including Holland House and various sites on the South Bank. However, in the end, King George VI leased part of Kensington Palace for the museum to move back in. The new site opened in 1951.The Kensington Palace museum kept a generally chronological structure to its layout, but alongside the rooms devoted to various time periods, there were separate galleries for historical shop fronts; prints; theatre; glass; paintings, toys and games; and royal costume. The glass room included Sir Richard Garton's collection of 437 pieces of 17th-19th century table glass, including goblets, wine glasses, bowls, candlesticks and decanters. The Print Room comprised around 3,000 watercolours and drawings and 7,000 prints, including a view of Whitehall and Westminster by Hendrick Danckerts made c.1675, The Cries of London by Paul Sandby, and works by Thomas Rowlandson, Wenceslaus Hollar, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The Theatre room included many theatrical costumes, several on loan from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. These included Henry Irving's costumes for Malvolio and King Lear, the dress Anna Pavlova wore as The Dying Swan, and Ivor Novello's costume from The King's Rhapsody. There was also a clown costume worn by the comedy pioneer Joseph Grimaldi, a piano belonging to W. S. Gilbert, a death mask of David Garrick, and Walter Lambert's Popularity, a painting of dozens of music hall and variety stars. By the 1970s, multiple coronation robes were on display, from 1838, 1902, 1911, and 1937. There were also other items of royal clothing belonging to Charles I, a collection of Queen Victoria's dresses, and Princess Margaret's wedding dress designed by Norman Hartnell.BOOK, London Museum,weblink Guide to the London Museum, 1972, London, H.M.S.O., Internet Archive, 978-0-11-290114-3, 43–47, {{anchor|Museum of London Act 1965}}

factoids

In 1960, a plan was formed to merge the London Museum with the Guildhall Museum, to be funded jointly by the government, the City of London Corporation, and the Greater London Council. An Act of Parliament is passed to this effect in 1965.WEB, 1965, Museum of London Act 1965,weblink 2023-01-07, NEWS, Birth, life and growth of London, Howard, Philip, 2 December 1976, The Times, 3, The City of London Corporation provided a site near what is now the Barbican Centre.

Museum of London (1976–2022)

(File:Lord Mayors Coach (6266582740).jpg|thumb|left|The Lord Mayor's Coach on display in the Museum's former Barbican galleries)The new site for the museum was at the corner of London Wall and Aldersgate Street, an area that had almost entirely been flattened by bombing in The Blitz. The architects appointed to oversee the construction of the new museum building were Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, who designed a complex with four main parts: a tower block containing offices and not open to the public; two floors of exhibition space arranged around a courtyard; a lecture theatre and education wing; and a rotunda containing a small garden and restaurant. With the museum galleries themselves, Powell and Moya adopted an innovative approach to museum design, whereby the galleries were laid out so that there was only one route through the museum – from the prehistoric period to the modern galleries. As in the previous incarnation of the museum, the galleries would be set out in a roughly chronological order.NEWS, 14 November 1964, Museum Of London Site, 12, The Times, The building also incorporated a viewing window out onto one of the remaining pieces of London's city wall, originally built by the Romans around three sides of the City. Construction began in April 1971, with the foundation stone laid by the Queen Mother on 29 March 1973, and the museum was opened in December 1976 by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the Barbican Estate.BOOK,weblink The Museum of London, 1985, London : Museum of London, Internet Archive, 978-0-904818-17-8, File:Le Brun's "Union".jpg|thumb|left|Union (Horse with Two Discs), a public sculpture by Christopher Le BrunChristopher Le BrunAs in the London Museum, visitors entered a series of rooms set out in chronological order, moving anti-clockwise around the main courtyard on the upper floor through London's history up to the Great Fire in 1666, and then descending to the lower level and moving clockwise around the courtyard up to the present day. Visitors would finish their visit by the Lord Mayor's Gold State Coach.BOOK,weblink The Museum of London, 1985, London : Museum of London, Internet Archive, 978-0-904818-17-8, 73, In November 2002, the previous The Thames In Prehistory gallery was replaced with an entirely new display titled London Before London.NEWS, Lohman, Jack, 11 November 2002, London Before London,weblink History Today, 2023-01-02, A £20 million redevelopment called the "Galleries of Modern London" was completed in May 2010, the museum's biggest investment since opening in 1976. The redesign, by London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre, comprised the entire lower floor of the main galleries, covering the period from the 1670s to the present day. The Galleries of Modern London displayed a total of 7,000 objects. Star exhibits included a mummified cat, a 1928 Art Deco lift from Selfridges department store on Oxford Street, and a complete 18th century debtors' prison cell covered in graffiti.WEB, 2010-05-18, Museum of London set for opening of £20m wing,weblink 2023-01-20, the Guardian, en, The transformation included four new galleries. The Expanding City gallery covered the period 1670-1850. People's City addressed 1850-1940s, including a "Victorian Walk" displaying some of the museum's real office and shop frontages and interiors; objects relating to the suffragette movement; and pages of Charles Booth's 1888 "poverty map", colour-coding London's streets according to the relative wealth of their inhabitants.WEB, 2010-05-22, Galleries of Modern London, Museum of London, London,weblink 2023-01-20, The Independent, en, World City was the gallery containing objects dating from the 1950s to the present day, including 1950s suits, a Mary Quant dress from the 1960s, Biba fashion in the 1970s, outfits from London's punk scene, and a pashmina from Alexander McQueen's 2008 collection. Finally, the City Gallery featured large, street-level windows along London Wall that allowed passers-by to view the Lord Mayor's State Coach, which takes to the streets each November for the Lord Mayor's Show.BOOK, Museum of London, Museum Highlights, Scala, 2016, 978-1785510656, London, In 2014, the museum opened a new gallery displaying the cauldron from the 2012 Summer Olympics. The cauldron was made up of 204 steel stems, each tipped with a copper "petal", which could be raised or lowered to create various formations. When all the petals were raised to their full height, they together formed the shape of a cauldron. The gallery featured 97 of the original stems, wooden moulds for the copper petals, Great Britain's Paralympic petal, and footage showing the cauldron in use during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympiad. The room also showed interviews with some of the creators, including lead designer Thomas Heatherwick and an engineer called Gemma Webster.NEWS, 2014-07-24, London 2012 Olympic Cauldron at Museum of London, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 2023-01-20,

Relocation to Smithfield

File:Inside Smithfield market III, EC1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The interior of one of the Smithfield MarketSmithfield MarketIn 2016, the museum announced it would be closing its London Wall site and moving to a set of disused market buildings in West Smithfield in 2021.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2016-07-28, Museum of London unveils new plans to go underground,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, The new site will increase the museum's size from 17,000 square metres to over 27,000.NEWS, Dubois, Anna, Prynn, Jonathan, 27 March 2015, Museum of London going ahead with £70m move to Smithfield, London Evening Standard,weblink 31 March 2015, Museum director Sharon Ament said that one reason for the move was "a failing building with problematic entrances and a location which is difficult to find". A competition was held to find an architectural firm to design the new building, with over 70 firms taking part. Six were shortlisted, and their initial designs released to the public in 2016.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2016-06-09, On display: visions for new Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, Stanton Williams and Asif Khan were chosen as the final architects.The site at Smithfield includes part of the Thameslink train line running into Farringdon Station, and from an early point in the process, the Museum expressed interest in creating a see-through section of tunnel for commuters to glimpse inside the museum and visitors to see the train go by.NEWS, 2017-05-11, Museum of London plans for see-through rail tunnel, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 2023-01-20, It also includes the River Fleet, a tributary of the Thames which has long since become buried underground due to the high volume of construction work around it. One early plan for the new museum, since scrapped, included creating a well reaching down to the Fleet, which has been completely covered since the 1870s. Another idea for the new museum is to revive the ancient St Bartholomew’s Fair, which took place on the site regularly in the medieval period until being shut down by authorities in 1855. The museum will also feature spiral escalators taking visitors to the underground storage rooms which will function as the main historical galleries.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2017-05-10, A see-through tunnel could put commuters on show at Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, In 2019, further plans were released, which showed late-night queues outside the museum frontage and visitors perusing real items from the museum’s collection. Ament announced that workers had found the remains of a Victorian café called the Temperance Cocoa Room, complete with original tiling, and that the museum intended to re-open this section as a café.The scheme was originally set to cost £250 million and open in 2021; current estimates are that it will cost £337 million and open in 2026. Ament blamed the rising cost on the difficulty of working with an old building: "It is to do with things like waterproofing a building that hasn't needed to be water-proofed, it is to do with engineering".WEB, Dex, Robert, 2019-07-01, First look at plans for Museum of London's £332m new Farringdon home,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, In August 2022, the museum announced that a previously-unknown freshwater spring had been found underneath the new site. Tests revealed that it was safe to drink, and Ament claimed that she hoped visitors would be able to "fill up their water bottles from it".WEB, Dex, Robert, 2022-08-08, New Museum of London to offer water from historic spring,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, On 4 December 2022, the Museum closed its site at London Wall ahead of the move. It was also announced that when the new site opened in 2026, it would be called the London Museum.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2022-02-10, Museum of London to close in December ahead of big move and name change,weblink 2023-01-07, Evening Standard, en, Once the museum has vacated the London wall site, it will revert to the City of London Corporation. In 2019, plans were revealed to use the site to house a London Centre For Music, a £288m concert hall for use by the London Symphony Orchestra.WEB, 2019-01-21, First designs revealed for new £288m London concert hall,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, However, in 2022, the Corporation submitted plans to demolish the building, including the Bastion House office block above, and replace it with a 780,000 sq. ft office block, citing dangerous structural issues, poor energy performance, fire safety and limited possible uses as reasons in favour of demolition.WEB, Wise, Anna, 2022-10-02, Campaign group says Barbican demolition plans make 'misleading' safety claims,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, In May 2024, demolition remained the likely option after the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove decided not to intervene.NEWS, Spocchia, Gino, Museum of London set for demolition after Gove lifts holding directive,weblink 17 May 2024, Architects' Journal, 17 May 2024,

Collections

The museum holds in its collections objects covering 10,000 years of London's history, totalling around 7 million objects.WEB, What we collect {{!, Museum of London & Museum of London Docklands |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect |access-date=2023-01-21 |website=Museum of London |language=en}} It combines the original collections of both the Guildhall Museum and London Museum, plus many objects that the Museum of London has acquired since its foundation in the 1970s. In particular, since the 1970s the museum has been able to acquire more archaeological objects due to the more systematic and protected nature of modern archaeology, and a wider range of contemporary objects, such as photographs, oral histories, and video games.WEB, 2022-05-28, History of our collections {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/history-our-collections |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528034407weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }}In particular, the museum owns such a large collection of objects relating to London's docks that it was able to open a secondary site, the Museum of London Docklands, in 2003.

Pre-modern collections

File:White marble relief with Mithras bull-slaying scene (CIMRM 810-811), from Walbrook Mithraeum in Londinium,, AD 180-220, Museum of London (14007820699).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A white marble relief from the London Mithraeum, depicting the god Mithras slaying a bull]]The museum has over 13,000 objects in its prehistoric collections, of which 11,000 are made of stone, particularly flint. Many of these were found during 19th and 20th century construction in the city and date from the Lower Paleolithic era. The museum also owns the Garraway Rice Collection of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic material from Yiewsley, just west of London, and Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic material from Three Ways Wharf in Uxbridge. Neolithic items in the collection include polished axe heads and mace heads. The museum's Bronze Age and Iron Age finds mostly come from 19th and 20th century dredging of the River Thames, particularly the collections of Thomas Layton.WEB, 2022-07-03, Prehistoric collections {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/prehistoric |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703001901weblink |archive-date=3 July 2022 }} In 2019, the museum acquired the Havering Hoard, the largest Bronze Age hoard thus discovered in London, and the third-largest of its kind in the UK. It included 453 bronze objects, such as axe heads, spearheards and knives made between 900 and 800 BCE. They had almost all been broken or damaged, and buried carefully in four separate groups around the site. The museum put on a temporary exhibition of the hoard at its Docklands site in 2020.WEB, 2022-12-26, Largest ever Bronze Age hoard in London discovered {{!, Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/havering-hoard/ |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226003638weblink |archive-date=26 December 2022 }}The Roman collection totals over 47,000 objects, mostly from the Roman-occupied areas of the City of London and Southwark, including the UK's largest collection of terra sigillata (samianware). It also includes entire wall paintings and floors such as the Bucklersbury Mosaic; metalwork such as hipposandals, cutlery, jewellery and tweezers; four leather "bikini bottoms", possibly worn by female acrobats; and a wooden ladder.WEB, 2022-07-02, Roman collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/roman |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702234249weblink |archive-date=2 July 2022 }} In September 1954, a Roman temple to the god Mithras was discovered in the City of London. An estimated 400,000 members of the public visited the site while it was being excavated,WEB, Temple of Mithras: remembering London's greatest archaeological discovery,weblink 2023-01-10, MOLA, en, a job which was mostly carried out by archaeology students led by the then director of the London Museum, W. F. Grimes. The building stones of the temple have been reconstructed on their original site at the London Mithraeum, while the marble carvings found inside are part of the collections of the Museum of London.WEB, 2012-01-19, Temple of Mithras comes home,weblink 2023-01-10, the Guardian, en, File:Anglo-Saxon Brooch from Covent Garden in the Museum of London.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A Saxon copper brooch, decorated with gold and (garnet]]sWEB, Museum of London {{!, Free museum in London |url=https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/543911.html |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=collections.museumoflondon.org.uk}})The museum owns around 12,000 medieval objects, including 700 from the Saxon period. Some of these were found by mudlarks on the banks of the River Thames, as well as from cemeteries at Mitcham, Hanwell, Ewell, and the Savoy Palace. The medieval collection includes everyday objects such as spades, daggers, and belt buckles, over 1,350 pewter pilgrim badges, medieval ceramics, and floor tiles.WEB, 2022-07-03, Saxon and medieval collections {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/saxon-and-medieval |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703002517weblink |archive-date=3 July 2022 }}The museum holds over 1,500 pieces of Tudor and Stuart cutlery, mostly recovered from the Thames, and some purchased from the private collection of Hilton Price. There is also a large group of edged weapons, including some 17th-century swords made at the Hounslow Sword Factory; and Tudor and Stuart ceramics.WEB, 2022-07-02, Tudor and Stuart collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/tudor-and-stuart-collection |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702235240weblink |archive-date=2 July 2022 }} One of the most well-known and popular groups in the museum's collection from this period is the Cheapside Hoard, a hoard of almost 500 Tudor and Jacobean pieces of jewellery found in 1912 on Cheapside in the City of London. The entire hoard went on display for the first time as a temporary exhibition at the museum in 2013.WEB, 2013-10-10, Cheapside Hoard of treasure found in London a century ago goes on show,weblink 2023-01-10, the Guardian, en, In 2017, it was announced that the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths would donate £10 million to the museum in order to secure a permanent display for the Cheapside Hoard at the new museum site in West Smithfield.WEB, Williams, Main Image: Designs for the new Museum of London Stanton, 2017-07-03, Goldsmiths' Company donates £10m to new Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-10, Museums + Heritage Advisor, en-GB,

Modern collections

Demonstrating London's manufacturing prowess has been one of the museum's goals since the inception of the London Museum in 1911.To that end, the museum collects the decorative arts, such as 18th century glass, silver, jewellery and enamel. In 1943, the heirs of Sir Richard Garton donated his collection of 400 pieces of table glass, and the museum has pieces from London manufacturers like James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass. The museum has collected porcelain from the Chelsea, Bow and Vauxhall china factories, as well as the Martin Brothers. Donors such as Joan Evans, Catherine d'Erlanger, Mary of Teck, Jane Anne Gordon and Lady Cory have enlarged the museum's collection of jewellery, particularly mourning jewellery, chatelaines and costume jewellery.WEB, 2022-07-03, Decorative arts collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/decorative-arts |access-date=2023-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703002154weblink |archive-date=3 July 2022 }}(File:Museum of London Seidendamast-Kleid 1760.jpg|thumb|A 1760s dress on display in the Museum of London)The museum's dress and textile collection spans 23,000 homemade garments and professionally-made creations from the Tudor period to the modern day, and some have been in the collection since the London Museum's inception in 1911, at a time when few museums showed interest in clothing. The London Museum was the first British museum to produce a catalogue of its costume collection, in 1933. There is a particular focus on clothing made by London dressmakers and tailors, sold in London shops, or worn by Londoners. The museum's collection includes pieces by Lucile, Hardy Amies, Norman Hartnell, Victor Stiebel, Mary Quant, Katharine Hamnett, and Vivienne Westwood. The collection also includes several pieces of royal clothing, including a shirt thought to have belonged to Charles I; many theatrical, ballet, circus, music hall, and opera costumes; and silk garments woven in Spitalfields. Outside of clothing, the museum also holds banners and sashes related to the female suffrage campaign of the early 20th century, the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, and dockworker trade unions.WEB, 2022-05-28, Dress and textiles collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/dress-and-textiles |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528162512weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }} The collection also includes several objects examined by fashion historian Janet Arnold in her book series Patterns of Fashion- eight dresses dating 1860-1930 from Patterns of Fashion 1, a 16th-century leather jerkin from Patterns of Fashion 3, and a shirt and two smocks from the late 16th to early 17th centuries featured in Patterns of Fashion 4.WEB, 2021-04-19, Museum of London {{!, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion |url=https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/group/21610.html |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419121219weblink |archive-date=19 April 2021 }}The museum holds over 100,000 paintings, prints and drawings, either by London artists or taking London and Londoners as their subject. These include works by Wenceslaus Hollar, Paul Sandby, Canaletto, William Powell Frith, George Elgar Hicks, Walter Greaves, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Thomas Rowlandson, C. R. W. Nevinson, and Spencer Gore. The museum's collection also contains portraits of London figures such as military leader and politician Oliver Cromwell and suffrage campaigner and activist Sylvia Pankhurst;WEB, 2022-05-28, Paintings, prints and drawings collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/paintings-prints-and-drawings |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528033949weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }} and several panoramas and views of London dating back as far as c.1630. One of the most popular examples of these is the Rhinebeck Panorama, an 180° aerial view made around 1806, looking west from where Tower Bridge stands today. In 1806, there was not yet a bridge at this point in the river, and so the view imagines the viewer to be floating in a hot air balloon over the River Thames. It may have been a preparatory drawing for a larger, full-colour, 360° view, capitalising on a trend for panoramic views in the late 18th century (indeed, the word panorama was coined in 1789).WEB, panorama {{!, Etymology, origin and meaning of panorama by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/panorama |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=www.etymonline.com |language=en}} It was made by three unknown artists: one who painted the main cityscape, one who painted the ships on the river, and one who painted the church spires in the distance. Little is known about the origins of the panorama, as it was discovered lining a barrel of pistols in a town called Rhinebeck in the state of New York in the United States. The drawing was acquired by the museum in 1998.WEB, Why the London 'Rhinebeck Panorama' was a game-changer in 1806,weblink 2023-01-11, Museum of London, en, File:Early 20th century objects in the Museum of London.jpg|thumb|A UNIC taxicab and panels from a lift in SelfridgesSelfridgesThe Museum of London has collected around 150,000 photographs focussing on everyday life in London. The earliest example dates from c.1845 and shows a view of the then-newly-opened Hungerford Bridge taken by Henry Fox Talbot. Other photographs include views of London dating back to c.1855 by Roger Fenton; Bill Brandt's series taken inside World War II air raid shelters; scenes of the building of the first line of what is now the London Underground transport network; pictures of suffragette protests taken by pioneering female photographer Christina Broom; and works by British photographer Henry Grant. The largest work in this collection is a camera obscura print made by Vera Lutter showing Battersea Power Station, at 7 feet (2.1m) high.WEB, 2022-05-28, Photography collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/photographs-museum-london-collections |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528172406weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }}The museum also collects more general social and working history objects relating to the everyday lives and trade of ordinary Londoners. This includes shop fronts, food packaging, entire vehicles, and a large collection of "penny toys"- toys costing a penny. The museum also collects objects related to London trades such as clockmaking, coopering, silk-weaving, engraving, and silversmithing. The museum holds an internationally important collection of suffragette material, largely from the archive of the suffrage group, the Women's Social and Political Union; the archives of the Whitefriars Glassworks, and papers relating to Kibbo Kift. The museum has also collected a range of telecommunications devices and equipment, including telephone kiosks.WEB, 2022-05-28, Social history and working history {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/social-and-working-history |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528043041weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }}The museum has been collecting oral histories since the 1980s, and now holds over 5,000 hours of interviews with Londoners from the 20th and 21st centuries. Particular emphasis is placed on narratives surrounding immigration and London's docks, as well as 3,000 hours of interviews made by the London History Workshop Centre.WEB, 2022-06-04, Life stories and oral history collection {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/life-stories-and-oral-history-collection |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220604015035weblink |archive-date=4 June 2022 }}The collections include a substantial amount of material relating to London's port and the River Thames, much of which is on display at the museum's secondary site, the Museum of London Docklands. This includes vessels such as a 1930s skiff called the Thames, cargo handling equipment. models of vessels such as the Lord Mayor of London's barge and the SS Great Eastern, and material relating to trades connected to the port, such as dock police, wheelwrights and administrative staff.WEB, 2022-06-03, Port and river collections {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/port-river-collections |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603084911weblink |archive-date=3 June 2022 }}The Sainsbury Study Centre is hosted at the Museum of London Docklands, detailing the history of the supermarket chain since its foundation in 1869.WEB, 2022-07-03, The Sainsbury Archive {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/sainsbury-archive |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220703002401weblink |archive-date=3 July 2022 }} This site also hosts the archives for the Port of London Authority, including the minute books and business records for many London dock companies dating back to the West India Dock Company, founded in 1799. It includes 40,000 photographs of London's docks and the River Thames, many showing various trades around the river. This archive is popular with visitors tracing their family history, who may have ancestors who worked in the docks.WEB, 2022-05-28, Port of London Authority Archive {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/what-we-collect/port-london-authority-archive |access-date=2023-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528035359weblink |archive-date=28 May 2022 }}{{galleryOne of the Museum's many artefacts from Roman London, dating from the 3rd century ADThe museum's fantastical recreation of Vauxhall Pleasure GardensInterior of a Selfridges lift from 1928 in the former 20th-century sectionA wax head, showing the effects of syphilisA printing press on display at the museum, with leaflets flying out}}

Contemporary collecting

(File:Fatberg at Museum of London.jpg|thumb|A dried section of the Whitechapel fatberg on display at the Museum of London)The museum continues to add to its collection, often through the acquisition of contemporary objects, including those connected to national news stories, such as the Whitechapel fatberg or the Trump baby blimp.During the 2012 London Summer Olympics, the Museum of London collected tweets using the hashtag #citizencurators, both by the public and by a select group of 18 contributors from across the city.WEB, 2012-07-25, Olympics diary: tweeting Games Time history,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, In 2016, the museum attempted to buy a water-cannon truck bought by then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson. In the summer of 2014, Johnson bought three water cannon trucks from the German federal police for £218,000 in order to combat civil unrest.WEB, 2014-06-10, Boris Johnson to buy three water cannon for Metropolitan police,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, These were then banned for use in the UK by Home Secretary Theresa May, and could not be deployed. Johnson attempted to sell them. The museum tried to buy one, but the trucks were only available to European policing or civil protection organisations. Unable to find a buyer, the trucks were sold to a reclamation yard in 2018 for £3,675 each. The museum's director, Sharon Ament, expressed interest in collecting some of the scrap or salvage, but no part of the trucks has yet entered the museum's collection.WEB, 2018-11-20, Museum of London eyes Boris Johnson's water-cannon trucks,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, In 2018, the museum displayed a section of the Whitechapel fatberg, a solid lump of fat and grease that had formed in the sewer network underneath Whitechapel.WEB, 2018-02-08, Part of monster sewer fatberg goes on display at London museum,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, After being on display for several months, the chunk was removed from the galleries and placed in a freezer, where fans could view it around the clock on a live webcam.WEB, 2018-08-14, View the fat: Museum of London launches live stream of fatberg,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, (File:Paul Simonon london calling Fender Precision Bass.JPG|thumb|Paul Simonon's smashed bass guitar, on display at the Museum of London)In 2019, the museum collected a coffee stall called "Syd's" (named for its founder, Syd Tothill) that had stood on the corner of Shoreditch High Street and Calvert Avenue since 1919. The stall closed in 2019 due to poor sales and was donated to the museum by Syd's granddaughter, Jane Tothill. The museum has announced that it will be put on display when it opens its new site in Smithfield Market.WEB, 2019-12-19, Shoreditch residents will no longer wake up and smell Syd's coffee,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, In January 2021, the museum acquired a giant inflatable blimp depicting former US President Donald Trump as a giant baby. The 6 metre-high blimp was designed by Matt Bonner to protest Trump's visit to the UK in 2018, and has since been flown around the world in protest of the president's regime.WEB, O'Reilly, Luke, 2021-01-18, Giant Donald Trump baby blimp to join Museum of London collection,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, In 2021, the museum negotiated with The Clash bass player Paul Simonon for a long-term loan of his broken Fender bass guitar, played onstage at the New York Palladium in 1979, where Simonon smashed it onstage. The moment was captured by photographer Pennie Smith and became the album cover for the band's album, London Calling.WEB, 2021-07-07, Bass guitar smashed at Clash gig to join relics at Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en, In June 2022, the museum bought the film Putin's Happy by Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, documenting protests, activism and onlookers between January and March 2019 while the British government was negotiating the terms of Brexit.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2022-06-23, Museum of London gets artistic take on Brexit six years after the vote to leave,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, In April 2020, the museum put out a call for donations of objects and oral histories connected to the global COVID-19 pandemic.WEB, 2022-11-01, Museum for London: collecting COVID,weblink 2023-01-12,weblink 1 November 2022, As part of the Collecting Covid project, London Zoo donated a large illuminated sign showing the logo of the UK's National Health Service surrounded by hearts, which was hung outside their giraffe house during lockdown in March 2020.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2021-05-27, London Zoo's illuminated NHS sign to go on show at Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, In July 2020, sound designers String and Tins made recordings of soundscapes in London streets that had become deserted due to pandemic lockdowns for the museum's collection.WEB, 2022-07-20, Recording London Soundscapes, Past & Present,weblink 2023-01-12,weblink 20 July 2022, In October 2020, Arsenal football player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang donated his shirt featuring a Black Lives Matter logo, which had been worn by him during games that season. The logo had been added to all Premier League shirts for the summer 2020 season following widespread protests against racial violence in London and around the world.WEB, Collings, Simon, 2020-10-13, Aubameyang to donate one of Arsenal's BLM shirts to Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, During celebrations for the Islamic festival of Ramadan, the museum collected thousands of messages from a WhatsApp group made up of five Muslim women in West London sharing their reflections on celebrating during lockdown.WEB, 2022-07-02, Ramadan in Lockdown {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections/about-our-collections/enhancing-our-collections/collecting-covid/ramadan-lockdown |access-date=2023-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702231252weblink |archive-date=2 July 2022 }} In January 2021, the museum announced the acquisition of thirteen tweets made by Londoners during lockdown.WEB, 2022-10-10, Museum of London acquires 'viral' Tweets for Collecting COVID {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/news-room/press-releases/museum-london-acquires-tweets |access-date=2023-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221010122644weblink |archive-date=10 October 2022 }} In February 2021, Mayor of Lambeth Philip Normal donated his chain of office, which he had made from card and t-shirt fabric while the real one was locked up in the town hall. Normal had a virtual appointment ceremony to the role in April 2020.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2021-02-22, Mayor's home-made lockdown chain of office going on show in museum,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en, The museum also asked volunteers to describe their "pandemic dreams" to collect oral histories of how the pandemic affected Londoners' sleep cycles.WEB, Dex, Robert, 2020-11-26, Can't get it out of my head — Museum of London to collect Covid dreams,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en,

Exhibitions

• 1999: Pride and Prejudice: Lesbian and Gay LondonWEB, Pride and Prejudices: 22 years on,weblink 2024-01-29, Museum of London, en,
• 2006: Queer is HereWEB, 2006-02-13, Queer Is Here,weblink 2024-01-29, Londonist, en,
• 2006–2007: belonging: Voices of London's RefugeesWEB, 2006-10-24, Refugees exhibit their capital gains,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2010–2011: London FuturesNEWS, 2010-10-27, In pictures: London Futures climate change exhibition, en-GB, The Guardian,weblink 2023-01-12, 0261-3077,
• 2011–2012: Charles DickensWEB, 2011-12-07, Charles Dickens's London of dirt and despair captured in evocative exhibition,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2012–2013: Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection MenWEB, 2012-10-19, Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men at the Museum of London - review {{!, James Poskett |url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/oct/19/doctors-dissection-resurrection-men-museum-london |access-date=2023-01-12 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}
• 2013: Opening The OlympicsWEB, 2013-03-28, Tom Daley's Olympic trunks go on show at Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2013–2014: The Cheapside HoardWEB, 2013-06-04, Cheapside Hoard of 17th-century jewels set to dazzle at Museum of London,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2014–2015: Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived And Will Never DieWEB, 2014-05-20, Museum of London exhibition aims to get 'under the skin' of Sherlock Holmes,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2015–2016: The Crime Museum UncoveredNEWS, Forsdike, Josy, 2015-10-03, The Crime Museum Uncovered, en-GB, The Guardian,weblink 2023-01-12, 0261-3077,
• 2016–2017: Fire! Fire!WEB, 2015-09-02, Museum of London to mark Great Fire of London,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2017–2018: The City Is OursWEB, 2017-07-13, The City Is Ours review – will vertical forests and smart street lights really save the planet?,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2017: JunkWEB, 2017-06-30, Museum of London junk exhibition reveals human joy in repairs,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2017: (Un)Common CurrencyNEWS, 2017-10-06, Exhibition explores London's alternative currencies,weblink 2024-01-29, BBC News, en-GB,
• 2018: London NightsWEB, 2018-04-22, The big picture: William Eckersley's Dark City,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2018: Fatberg!
• 2018-2019: Disease X: London's Next Epidemic?WEB, Disease X - free exhibition,weblink 2024-01-29, Museum of London, en,
• 2018–2019: Votes For WomenWEB, 2017-11-09, Museum of London exhibition will mark suffragettes' victory,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2019–2020: Beasts of LondonWEB, 2019-03-31, Small wonder: tiny Victorian dog that killed 200 rats an hour,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,
• 2019–2020: The Clash: London CallingNEWS, 2019-12-13, The Clash: How London Calling still inspires 40 years on, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 2023-01-20,
• 2020–2021: Dub London: Bassline of a CityWEB, Embley, Jochan, 2020-10-02, Dub London at Museum of London explores music as a joyful refuge,weblink 2023-01-12, Evening Standard, en,
• 2022: Grime Stories: From the Corner to the MainstreamNEWS, 2022-06-18, London exhibition tracks grime music's evolution, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 2023-01-20,
• 2022: Harry Kane: I Want To Play FootballWEB, 2022-05-21, Harry Kane exhibition aims to spur children on to success,weblink 2023-01-12, the Guardian, en,

Other locations

Museum of London Docklands

In 2003, the Museum opened the Museum in Docklands (later renamed the Museum of London Docklands) in a 19th-century grade I listed warehouse near Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs.WEB, 2022-11-02, Our organisation {{!, Museum of London |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/about-us/our-organisation |access-date=2023-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102132610weblink |archive-date=2 November 2022 }} The Museum of London Docklands charts the history of London as a port, beginning 2,000 years ago with the Roman trading post set up on the banks of the Thames and following London's expansion into the biggest port the world had ever known.WEB, 2022-12-05, Permanent gallery exhibitions {{!, Museum of London Docklands |url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london-docklands/permanent-galleries |access-date=2023-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205022544weblink |archive-date=5 December 2022 }} In November 2007, it opened the capital's first permanent gallery examining London's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, "London, Sugar & Slavery".WEB, 2018-02-14, BBC - London - History - London, sugar and slavery,weblink 2023-01-07,weblink 14 February 2018,

Museum of London Archaeology

Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) is an archaeology and built heritage practice originally that was originally part of the Museum of London, but became an independent charity in November 2011, regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.WEB, MUSEUM OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY - Charity 1143574,weblink 2023-01-07, register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk, en-GB, It employs 310 staffWEB, 2018-08-20, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) {{!, The Institute for Archaeologists |url=https://www.archaeologists.net/ro/381-mola-museum-london-archaeology |access-date=2023-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820172755weblink |archive-date=20 August 2018 }} and works not just in London, but across the UK and internationally. It is based at Mortimer Wheeler House in Shoreditch.WEB, About Us,weblink 2023-01-07, MOLA, en, File:Timber revetment, c.1220 A.D..JPG|thumb|Part of a 13th-century timber wall from the Thames riverbank at BillingsgateBillingsgate

Governance

The Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands are part of the same group. Since 1 April 2008, the Museum has been jointly controlled and funded by the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority. Prior to this, the Museum had been jointly controlled by the City of London and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is headed by a director.

List of directors

• 1965–1970: Donald Harden (acting)
• 1972–1977: Tom Hume
• 1977–1997: Max HebditchWEB, archive.ph,weblink 2023-01-07, archive.ph, 6 January 2013,weblink" title="archive.today/20130106043509weblink">weblink dead,
• 1997–2002: Simon ThurleyWEB, 2008-10-06, Simon Thurley - CV,weblink 2023-01-07,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081006160307weblink">weblink 6 October 2008,
• 2002 to 2012: Jack LohmanNEWS, Moneo, Shannon, 2016-05-03, Museum CEO owns 30,000 books and reads in six languages, en-CA, The Globe and Mail,weblink 2023-01-07,
• September 2012 – present: Sharon AmentWEB, Museum of London names new director,weblink 2023-01-07, Museums Association, en-US,

See also

• Culture of London
• London and Middlesex Archaeological Society

References

{{reflist|30em}}

External links

• Official website of the Museum of London
• Museum of London Docklands
• Museum of London within Google Arts & Culture
• {{commons category-inline}}

{{London museums}}{{Museums of London history}}{{London landmarks}}{{authority control}}