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The London Museum is the only museum to tell the story of the world's greatest city and its people. Users are prohibited from posting any content which is defamatory, infringes third party intellectual property rights, is offensive or otherwise unlawful. 2. We reserve the right to remove posts or comments we deem unlawful, or for which we receive complaint. Please note, for enquiries, please email info(at)londonmuseum(dot)org(dot)uk.

19/10/2026

From Willesden to the world 🌍📚

Born in Willesden in 1975, Zadie Smith became a literary sensation with her debut novel White Teeth, written while she was still at Cambridge.

Set in north-west London, the novel explores migration, identity and Britain's colonial past through the lives of two families.

North-west London remains at the heart of Smith's work, with places like Kilburn and Willesden inspiring stories that capture the area's rich mix of cultures, communities and changing identities.

Most recently, her novel 'The Fraud' looks back at how Kilburn transformed from rural fields into the bustling suburb we know today.

Have you read any of Zadie Smith's novels? 👇

📷 Zadie Smith / Courtesy of alamy
📷 View above Willesden Junction railway lines / 1959 / © Henry Grant Collection/London Museum
📷 Playground at Chamberlain School, Kilburn / 1971 / © Henry Grant Collection/London Museum

18/10/2026

If you were into jazz, in London, and around between the 50s to the 90s, then you probably knew Dobells.

Doug Dobell came from a family of bookshop owners who’d been based on Charing Cross Road since the 1800s. He joined his father’s business in 1946, but quickly realised the book trade wasn’t for him. Instead, he began selling records from an empty corner of the shop.

“I always got the feeling that my father felt I was the black sheep of the family for turning to jazz records and not carrying on with the tradition,” Dobell said in a magazine interview in 1986. “Mind you, I’ve had no regrets at my decision, the last 40 years have been very fulfilling.”

Many legendary musicians leafed through Dobell’s record racks, including American blues legends BB King and Muddy Waters. You’d come to Dobell’s to hear about what new sounds were on the rise, or what the cool places in London to visit were.

After Dobell died in 1987, the business continued for a few more years. It shut its doors permanently in 1991.

17/10/2026

If you ever wake in a cold sweat wondering if Bill and Ben, The Flowerpot Men, are safe, then don't worry: we've got them.

The brainchild of the BBC Head of Children's Programmes Freda Lingstrom and her colleague Maria Bird, 'Watch with Mother' was designed for the pre-school audience. The title echoed the BBC radio programme 'Listen With Mother' and was intended to allay fears that children were being corrupted by watching television alone.

16/10/2026

“built with so much splendour and elegance that it stands a monument of art… you would think the whole science of architecture exhausted on this building”

So said historian William Camden in 1586.

But all we have to look at are pictures and fragments of this once great palace.

Nice park though.

🎨Nonsuch Palace, 1620-1629, anonymous, Fitzwilliam Museum.

🎨Palatium Regium in Angli? Regno apellatum Nonciutz, Nonsuch Palace; c.1800, London Museum.

🎨Nonsuch, London Museum.

14/10/2026

A smashing campaign? You could say the Suffragettes really broke through to make their point...

After years of peaceful campaigning failed to win voting rights for women, some Suffragettes turned to more militant tactics. In March 1912, over 200 women took part in a coordinated window-smashing campaign across London's West End, targeting businesses including Harrods.

Armed with easily concealed toffee hammers, they embraced the slogan: “Better broken windows than broken promises.”

The consequences were severe. Hundreds were arrested, many endured force-feeding while on hunger strike in Holloway Prison, and some activists later escalated to even more dramatic forms of protest.

But more than a century later, historians still debate the same question: did militant action help win women the vote, or hinder the cause? What do you think? 👇

📷 Broken Windows at Salmon and Gluckstein / © London Museum
📷 Broken Windows / © London Museum
📷 Broken Windows Smashed by Suffragettes / © London Museum
📷 Toffee-hammer used for breaking windows / © London Museum

13/10/2026

London shaped Grace Wales Bonner, and Grace Wales Bonner has helped shape modern fashion ✨

Born and raised in south London to an English mother and Jamaican father, Wales Bonner spent her childhood travelling across the city, soaking up the people, styles and cultures that would later inspire her work.

After studying at Central Saint Martins, she launched her label in 2014 and quickly became known for designs that celebrate identity, heritage and community. Her acclaimed Lovers Rock collection paid tribute to London's British-Caribbean culture, drawing inspiration from family photo albums and the stylish crowds who flocked to lovers rock nights in Lewisham during the 1970s.

Today, her designs can be found in some of London's most iconic stores, but the city remains at the heart of her work. From the sounds of Notting Hill Carnival to the stories of London's diverse communities, Grace Wales Bonner continues to weave the capital's rich cultural history into every collection.

Did you know about the London connections behind her designs? Let us know in the comments👇

📷 Grace Wales Bonner at London's Serpentine Gallery / ©️ Courtesy of alamy
📷 Runway model wearing Wales Bonner knitted vest during the Wales Bonner show , London Fashion Week Mens 2020-2021 / ©️Jonas Gustavsson/Sipa USA
📷 Runway model wearing Wales Bonner bomber jacket durin the Wales Bonner show , London Fashion Week Mens 2020-2021 / ©️Jonas Gustavsson/Sipa USA
📷 Wales Bonner mens Spring-Summer 2026 runway during Paris Fashion Week Menswear / ©️ dpa/Alamy Live News

10/10/2026

Your challenge: you've been given charge of an American tourist for the day. You have to show them something that will blow their mind. BUT, it has to be in your local area/borough. What is it?

09/10/2026

Before mobile phones and fibre broadband, there was the BT Tower…

Equipped with 57 microwave dishes, it helped keep the nation communicating, while its striking design made it an instant attraction, welcoming around one million visitors in its very first year.

Happy 60th Birthday, BT Tower!

01/10/2026

Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton was executed for witchcraft in 1621.

She lived at the height of Europe's belief in witchcraft (roughly 1450 to 1700), when witch hunts killed perhaps 100,000 people through ex*****on, torture or lynching.

In England, laws passed in 1542, 1562 and 1604 made witchcraft a crime punishable by death. The accused, usually but not always women, were charged with 'maleficium': causing harm through magic.

Londoners fought back with witch bottles filled with iron nails and urine, and even hid shoes in the roof of the Savoy Chapel.

This October, explore how Londoners lived with the fear of witchcraft 🔮

🎨 Elizabeth Sawyer, of Edmonton, Middlesex. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection

29/09/2026

Packed trains. Busy buses. Traffic jams. Sound familiar?

In the 1970s, photographer Barry Lewis captured the daily rush of London life in his Coming and Going series. From commuters squeezing onto Routemasters and the Piccadilly Line to crowds flooding Oxford Street, his photographs reveal a city constantly on the move.

The fashion may have changed, but the headlines haven't. Delays, congestion and overcrowding were frustrating Londoners decades ago, just as they do today.

These fascinating snapshots remind us that while London is always evolving, some parts of city life remain timeless.

📷 ©️ Barry Lewis, London Museum

24/09/2026

Most people hurry past the Aldgate Pump without a second glance. But this small monument once marked the gateway to London's East End and has stood at the corner of Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street for centuries.

It also acquired a darker reputation in the 19th century. Water drawn from the pump was found to be contaminated, and locals began calling it the "pump of death" after it was linked to illness and disease.

Today, thousands of people pass it every day.

Have you ever stopped to look at it?

📷 Aldgate pump in use, courtesy of Alamy
📷 Aldgate Pump today, courtesy of Alamy

22/09/2026

Did you know London has been battling floods for nearly 1,000 years? 🌊

Long before the Thames Barrier opened in 1983, flooding was a regular and often deadly part of life in the capital.

From medieval storm surges to the devastating flood of 1928 (pictured), Londoners have spent centuries trying to tame the Thames.

Today, the Barrier helps protect the city, but rising sea levels and more extreme weather mean flooding remains a challenge for the future.

📷 London streets flooded in 1928. Courtesy of Alamy

19/09/2026

London's Pearly Kings and Queens have been gathering for their Harvest Festival since the 1870s 🌽

Each September brings together the largest annual gathering of the pearly community. The tradition began with a road sweeper named Henry Croft, who covered a suit entirely in pearl buttons, inspired by London's costermongers - street traders who sewed buttons onto their clothes as a mark of pride.

His fundraising for orphanages and hospitals caught on, and other families followed suit, with the tradition passed down through generations into the pearly societies that still exist today.

St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square was long the festival's traditional home. In recent years, a parallel celebration has also grown up at St Mary-le-Bow and Guildhall Yard.

Nearly 150 years on, it remains a living link to Victorian London's street-trading culture and its tradition of community-driven charity.

📷 Costermongers Harvest Festival Thanksgiving service, 1951. © Henry Grant Collection/London Museum

17/09/2026

The man who changed photography forever 📸

Before cameras were part of everyday life, Henry Fox Talbot was experimenting with ways to capture light itself. In the 1830s and 1840s, he developed the calotype, a revolutionary process that used negatives to create multiple photographic prints, laying the foundations for modern photography.

His book 'The Pencil of Nature', the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs, helped showcase the potential of this new technology. Through his work, Talbot captured a Britain in transition, documenting a world being reshaped by industry, innovation and change.

Today, every photograph that captures a moment in London's history owes something to his pioneering vision. He died in 1877.

📷 Hungerford Bridge / c. 1845 / Henry Fox Talbot / ©️ London Museum

15/09/2026

Mary Quant didn't just design clothes, she helped define a generation.

Born in Blackheath, Quant became one of the leading figures of Swinging London, bringing youthful energy, bold colours and a sense of fun to fashion. Her King's Road boutique, Bazaar, became a destination for young Londoners eager to embrace something new.

She is best remembered for championing the mini-skirt, a design that challenged convention and gave women greater freedom to move, dance and express themselves. But Quant's influence went far beyond hemlines. From colourful tights to futuristic PVC designs, she constantly pushed fashion in exciting new directions.

By the mid-1960s, her designs had become a global phenomenon, but her impact remains deeply rooted in London, where she helped transform the city into the style capital of the world.

📷 Mary Quant in her shop / Courtesy of alamy
📷 Knickers / © London Museum
📷 Mary Quant / 1960.10.14 / Courtesy of alamy
📷 Pantie / girdle / © London Museum
📷 Mary Quant models / Courtesy of alamy

11/09/2026

Long-gone landmarks of Roman and medieval London 🏛️

From around 200 CE, the Romans built a two-mile-long, six-metre-high defensive stone wall around their capital, Londinium. They built into it six gates, later known as Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, Newgate and Ludgate.

The gates remained an important feature of life in London and were repaired and rebuilt many times.

The gates were big multistorey buildings that housed apartments and prisons and protected the city with gates and portcullises. They controlled trade and traffic in and out of London, and were used to collect taxes.

They also were used to display important public information – as well as the body parts of executed people...

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