Museum of London

14/12/2022

Museum of London updated their address.

Museum of London updated their address.

14/12/2022

Winter wonderland on the Thames? ❄️

From Stuart London until 1814, the surface of the river froze over twenty-four times. Londoners marked some of these occasions with Frost Fairs, building markets, playing games and cooking meat on the icy surface of the river.

Take a look at some of the most famous Frost Fairs through the Museum of London's collections: https://bit.ly/3YqtSIc

12/12/2022

Take a chilly walk back in time with these wonderful archive images of London blanketed in snow in the 1950s and '60s. Do you remember your first 'snow day'? ❄️

1. Two children play in the snow, Hampstead, 1950-1959, ©️ Henry Grant

2. Boys on a toboggan, Hampstead Heath, 1969-02, ©️ Henry Grant

3. Children play in the snow, The Mall, 1957-12, ©️ Henry Grant

4. Two girls playing in the snow in the East End, 1955, ©️ Roger Mayne

09/12/2022

Since today is National Christmas Card Day, we're taking a look back at some of these powerful Christmas cards and posters created in the Votes for Women movement.

📷 Image 1 - ‘A Merry Christmas, 1911’ – Museum of London
This is a Votes for Women Christmas card from 1911, designed for the WSPU by Hilda Dallas. Christmas merchandise raised funds for the ‘war chest’ and kept the profile of the campaign in the public eye.

📷 Image 2 - 'The Girl's Christmas Tree' - Museum of London
This pro-suffrage propaganda postcard captioned 'To the Girl's Christmas Tree' satirises gender discrimination with the boys given first choice over presents under the Christmas tree. The girls being offered what, if anything, is left.

📷 Image 3 - 'Greeting 1912' - Museum of London
A Christmas and New Year Card produced by the Women's Social and Political Union. Similarly to the first card shown, cards like these raised funds for the suffragette 'war chest' and also raised the public profile of the campaign.

📷 Image 4 - 'Votes for Women, With Best Wishes For Xmas and New Year' - Museum of London
This card for Christmas, 1908 was designed by Sylvia Pankhurst and includes the logo of a woman breaking free: stepping through a gate with iron bars and heavy chains, carrying a 'Votes for Women' streamer. For Christmas 1908, the WSPU issued two differently priced Christmas cards to accommodate the differing financial circumstances of their supporters and, thereby, maximising the potential of this fundraising opportunity. The most expensive card, depicting Laurence Houseman's banner, sold for 6d, or could be purchased in larger quantities at a discount. This example by Sylvia Pankhurst was referred to as the 'penny Christmas card' and sold for just 1d each.

📷 Image 5 - 'A Merry Christmas and Votes for Women in 1910'
This Christmas card was issued by the Women's Social and Political Union for 1909. Printed in the suffragette colours of purple, white and green, the card depicts a drummer from the WSPU's own junior band. The greeting on the card optimistically calls for Votes for Women in 1910 referring to the anticipated passing of the Conciliation Bill.

Which one is your favourite?

08/12/2022

Public ex*****on was the dominant form of punishment for serious crimes in England up until the mid-19th century.

So, where did they happen? Right where we walk today... Could you even imagine? 😯

Here's our first location, The Tyburn Gallows or what we know now as Marble Arch. Tyburn was where the earliest recorded ex*****on was held in 1196, the ex*****on of William FitzOsbert.

Tyburn served as London’s principal site of ex*****on for around 600 years. The infamous Triple Tree or Tyburn Tree, a triangular gallows that allowed for simultaneous multiple hangings, was set up in 1571. It was removed in 1759, after which a temporary gallows was erected on ex*****ons days. The last ex*****ons at Tyburn took place in 1783, after Newgate Prison became London's principle ex*****on site.

04/12/2022

Goodbye, London. We’ll be back! 💜

04/12/2022

In honour of our closure we’ve created London’s Greatest Hits, a playlist curated by you and employees of the Museum.

45 songs to celebrate 45 years at London Wall – it’s only right to go out with a bang(er) or two 😉

Did your song make it on there? https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5yWIE9fPcbEXHqmta9nq2p?si=2a9fb26c40044db7&nd=1

02/12/2022

Are you ready for a weekend of music, films and a 24-hour museum opening? Yep, us too!

Head on down this weekend, 3-4 December, and help us celebrate the best of the London music scene from the 70s to present day, on what will be our final weekend at London Wall.

We’ve got two days of non-stop fun, here’s what in store 👇

🎶 All day beats from SISU DJs
📽️ Late night film festival
🧘 Early morning yoga
🎙️ A rap and rhyme session
🎭 A farewell procession
🖼️ A chance to explore our collections one last time…

Free to all! https://bit.ly/3B06gAd

Let’s make history, together 🤩

01/12/2022

This painting depicts the upper condemned cell at Newgate Prison, on the morning of the ex*****on of Henry Fauntleroy; one of the last people to be executed for forgery in England.

Fauntleroy is shown eighth from the left, in dark clothes.

A partner in a Marylebone banking firm, Henry forged his clients' signatures to embezzle funds which he used to finance extramarital affairs.

Although he admitted his guilt, he pleaded that he had instead used the misappropriated funds to pay his firm's debts.

The scandal of his crime attracted considerable public attention and 13,000 people signed a petition to demand his reprieve.

Despite this, Fauntleroy was hanged outside Newgate a month after his conviction before a crowd of up to 100,000 Londoners.

Both this painting and a broadside sold at his hanging feature in our latest exhibition:

See Fauntleroy's story in-person, along with many other fascinating artefacts which reveal the people behind the punishment - book your ticket today: https://bit.ly/3AZvf6C

November 1824
🎨 W. Thomson, 1828

30/11/2022

Introducing Kitty Lord: singer, dancer and self-made woman.

Kitty might not be a household name now, but in the 1890s she blazed a sequin-spangled trail across the world’s stage, performing everywhere from London to South America, via Naples and Paris.

Senior Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts Beatrice Behlen pulls back the curtain on Kitty’s amazing collection of theatrical costumes, including some spectacular pink satin boots made by HM Rayne in London Waterloo in the 1880s.

Kitty died in 1972.

29/11/2022

We had an absolute blast at our Family Festival this weekend 🥳

What were your highlights? 📸

If you missed it, don’t worry, we’ve got our second Greatest Weekends takeover this Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December.

Get ready for the music festival of the year 🎸

http://bit.ly/3ASJTwq

27/11/2022

Get ready for day two of our Family Festival takeover 🎉 Head down to London Wall from 10am-5pm and enjoy all the activities on offer. From arts and crafts to musical performances, we’ve got plenty of activities to keep the whole family entertained. 🎭

26/11/2022

We’ve got loads of fun activities going on at London Wall today – come and check them out! From face painting to arts and crafts, there is fun for all the family.

The best thing? It’s all completely free!

Head on down and join us 🤩

25/11/2022

London’s Greatest Weekends – Family Festival

Are you ready for a weekend of FUN? Join us from 10am-5pm this Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 November, for the Greatest Weekends Family Festival. 🥳

Help us celebrate in style at the first of our two museum takeovers, as we prepare to close the doors of our London Wall museum site for good.

Attendance is FREE and we’ve got stuff for the whole family to enjoy. Excited yet? Here’s a sneak peek of what’s in store:
🎭Theatrical performances from The Walking Theatre Company
🎨 Face painting with The Glitterbox
🎶 Musical performances with Groove Baby
⚽ London’s biggest table football competition with The Walking Football Association
Plus arts and crafts, dance and LOTS more…

See you there! 🎉

https://bit.ly/3V5wg5j

A weekend extravaganza offering creative fun for families with face painting, performances, and London’s biggest table football competition.

22/11/2022

Anyone fancy a trip to Selfridges? Or you could just come to the Museum of London...

As part of our collection, we have these amazing Selfridges lifts which are the epitome of Art Deco glamour. They were installed in 1929, just in time for the 20th anniversary of Selfridges opening.

The one on the right has its doors shut, allowing you to admire the incredible iron-work by the Birmingham Guild. The lift is backlit too, allowing you to appreciate the silhouettes, which are of zodiac signs.

On the left-hand side, we have opened the doors to the lift in order to see the interior, showing three panels. Each has a centrepiece with Japanese stalks, the Chinese sun and beautiful beams of light which fill the entire panel. These were created by French metal-worker Edgar Brant.

It was estimated that in the 1950s, each Selfridges lift travelled four and a half miles every day and its doors would open 20,000 times a day – wow!

Selfridges remains an iconic landmark building in London which is still available to wander around today, although these lifts are only available to view in the Museum of London.

21/11/2022

CALLING ALL LONDONERS... we need your help curating London's Greatest Playlist 🎶

Let us know your favourite London song and we might just include it in our playlist 😏

Stay tuned... 🎧 🤩

19/11/2022

A medieval three-seated toilet seat | Museum of London

This medieval toilet seats three...

Can you think of anyone to spend some extra quality time with? 😄 🚽

https://bit.ly/3DsZG4A

A communal toilet seat from the 12th century reveals the underside of life in medieval London.

18/11/2022

IS THIS THE FIRST EVER SELFIE?

This beautiful item from our collection is a gold and carnelian fob seal created by the Italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci to commemorate the coronation of King George IV in 1820.

The King is shown in the guise of a Roman emperor, heroic and strong in his armour with a laurel wreath wrapped around his head, but was this really a correct portrayal of him?

In reality King George IV was often mocked in satirical images exaggerating his appearance. Commentators of the day also wrote that he was unfit, unwell and obese - which at the time was considered a moral failing.

So there is a very interesting disconnect here from the way in which the King would have liked to have been seen compared to how he was actually viewed in the public eye.

The kind of constructed reality is very much like the way we present the ‘best versions of ourselves’ in social media today rather than the flawed reality.

The item is carved out of carnelian, which is a deep, hard red stone and mounted in a gorgeous gold setting. It is engraved with a rose, thistle and a shamrock - the national flowers of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Don’t miss your chance to see this gorgeous piece of history before we close our doors on December 4.

17/11/2022

Visit our Victorian Santa's grotto at the Museum of London Docklands! 🎅

Meet the man himself in our festive Sailortown gallery, tell him your Christmas wishes, and receive a special gift 🎄

Tickets are selling out fast so make sure to book your slot today:

📅 2-23 December
👉 Book now: bit.ly/christmas_grotto

16/11/2022

,16 November 1724, notorious thief Jack Sheppard was executed at Tyburn.

Trained as a carpenter, Jack turned to a life of crime in his early 20s, after becoming involved with local criminal gangs that frequented the Black Lion tavern, off Drury Lane.

Petty theft led to burglary, and arrests soon followed.

1⃣🗝️ Sheppard's first arrest came after a burglary he committed in 1724.

Imprisoned overnight on the top floor of St Giles's Roundhouse, he escaped within three hours by breaking through the timber ceiling and lowering himself to the ground with a rope made from bedclothes.

2⃣🗝️ In May 1724, Sheppard was arrested for a second time, caught in the act of picking a pocket in Leicester Fields (near present-day Leicester Square).

He and his 'wife' Elizabeth Lyon were detained together, but escaped by filing through their manacles.

They also used their knotted bedclothes to escape via a window, and clambered over the 22-foot-high prison gate to freedom.

3⃣🗝️ Arrested a third time on 23 July 1724, Jack was imprisoned at Newgate prison and condemned to death.

By 31 August, he'd escaped.

This time, he was smuggled out of Newgate in women's clothing.

4⃣🗝️ Arrested again on 9 September by a posse from Newgate as he hid out on Finchley Common, Jack was returned to the condemned cell at Newgate.

This time, he managed to unlock his handcuffs, break through six barred doors, and climb onto the prison roof to escape once more.

5⃣🗝️ Sheppard was arrested a final time in the early morning on 1 November, blind drunk, "in a handsome Suit of Black, with a Diamond Ring and a carnelian ring on his Finger, and a fine Light Tye Peruke (men’s wig)". - The London Journal, 7 November 1724.

Jack's luck had run out.

On 16 November 1724, Sheppard was taken to the gallows at Tyburn to be hanged.

His final escape plan - to cut the ropes binding him on the way to the gallows - was thwarted when a prison guard at Newgate discovered the pen-knife he'd kept hidden.

15/11/2022

Not long now until London’s Greatest Weekends kicks off! 🎉

Come and join us to celebrate the end of an era with a fun-filled free weekend: http://bit.ly/3hGlbbW ​

11/11/2022

Armistice Day being celebrated in 1920.

A day for us to remember the heroes who fought for us and for those who lost their lives trying to keep us safe.

We will remember them.

© Museum of London/ Christina Broom Collection - 1920 – Armistice Day

10/11/2022

The Bucklersbury Mosaic

The Bucklersbury Mosaic was found in 1869, dating from 200 - 250 of the Christian Era in the Roman Period. It belonged to a house which once fronted onto Newgate Street in the heart of the Roman city.

When the mosaic was discovered during the building of the road Queen Victoria Street, it was an absolute sensation with thousands of people coming to see it, causing them to put up temporary staging to protect it.

When the mosaic is examined in detail, you can see it splits up into three parts. The first big section is roughly square shaped, with the other end being semi circular and the bit in between is a lovely strip which has the Acanthus scroll with the glowers and the plants coming out of the chalice, linking the two other parts together.

A tribute to the Romans who first laid it, we can appreciate the exquisiteness of this piece particularly shown with the two large interlocking squares which would've been extremely difficult to lay out. Built on very good foundations, including a hypercaust (which is a heated system) meaning it would have had pillars underneath it, and so all made of concrete and tile, creating a very level surface.

A real expression of Roman culture and civilisation, don't miss this beautiful piece of history available to see at the Museum of London until December 2022.

09/11/2022

Jam and coconut sponge, spotted dick, sticky toffee?

What was your favourite school pud?



📸© Henry Grant Collection/Museum of London, 1971

03/11/2022

Remember, remember… it's almost the 5th of November 🧨

Eight of the conspirators who plotted to blow up Parliament in 1605 were publicly executed over two days in St Pauls’ Churchyard and Old Palace Yard, Westminster.

This engraving dramatises these punishments against a fictional setting. It shows a view of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in 1606. The conspirators are depicted being dragged by horses through the streets, while one is hanged, another is being castrated, disembowelled and cut into pieces.

This print was published by James Caulfied in London, based on an earlier print etched and published by Claes Jansz Visscher in Amsterdam in around 1606. The British Museum have the original ink drawn design in their collection.

Despite it bearing little resemblance to either, it is assumed that the setting represents St Paul’s Churchyard where four of the conspirators: Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were executed on 30 January 1606 or Old Palace Yard where a further four plotters: Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes and Guy Fawkes were executed on 31 January 1606.

Other artefacts shown, such as the large cauldron over a fire, possibly intended to show the boiling and tarring of the conspirators’ heads and limbs prior to their being displayed on pikes in various locations throughout London… gruesome.

02/11/2022

This All Souls' Day, we are looking back on a momentous period of history: the Great Plague of 1665.

This was the last major plague epidemic in this country with official figures suggesting that there were about 68,000 people who died, though experts think it is more likely to be around the 100,000 mark at least.

Here at the Museum of London, we are lucky enough to hold the collection of Walter G. Bell who was a historian of the Great Plague. This collection includes a plague bell, Bills of Mortality and a broadside.

We assume this bell in our collection was used during the Great Plague in the 17th century to warn passers-by that somebody was coming along the road with a co**se.

The Bills of Mortality were used by Parish clerks to record all causes of death within their jurisdiction. This record would show variations from childbirth to toothache, but when the pPlague became a severe problem, the numbers kept building and building.

The broadside, seen as a poster or comic strip, illustrates various depictions of how life was during the plague, with some succumbing to it in their bedroom while what is thought to have been the richer people of London seen fleeing the city.

Though the Great Plague caused distress for so many, not all suffered completely as many businesses thrived through the epidemic.

‘People were in the same storm, but not necessarily in the same boat.’

At one point, all of this seemed so hard to imagine, but now it all sounds rather familiar.

Hear Hazel Forsyth, Senior Curator, delve into the gruesome reality of the 17th century.

31/10/2022

Museum of London | Free museum in London

Today, it is easy to forget just how visible public ex*****on and the wider infrastructure of punishment were to Londoners before 1868. But for centuries, the infamous Tyburn Triple Tree and other gallows and gibbets cast their shadows over the city, making the threat of a painful public death ever present in the minds of Londoners.

While we may never be able to imagine just how oppressive that must have felt, we can, by mapping London’s ex*****on landscape, begin to grasp how the spectacle of state violence worked its way into the consciousness of Londoners.

The modern city has few reminders of our brutal past. But, as these maps demonstrate, within central London you are never further than 5 kilometres from a known site of ex*****on. In the City of London’s Square Mile, you are always within 500 metres of a place where the gallows once stood.

Explore London’s ex*****on landscape through these interactive maps, and discover how capital punishment was an inescapable reality for Londoners between 1196 and 1868: https://bit.ly/3U7oU02

Discover the history of London at the Museum of London, near St Paul's and Barbican. The greatest stories from the greatest city in nine galleries.

28/10/2022

Who's up for a hunt this Halloween weekend?

We've teamed up with The Book Fairies for this new book, released to mark our new exhibition: Executions - on now at Museum of London Docklands.

It's a fascinating record of how London and Londoners were shaped by nearly 700 years of public ex*****ons.

Find these books hidden across London at key historical sites!

Time to get hunting...

26/10/2022

Five reasons to visit the Executions exhibition

Looking for something different to do this half-term?

Carve out some time to visit our Executions exhibition this spooky season at Museum of London Docklands. We've got 5 great reasons why you should visit, from a free audio tour to allow you to delve deeper into the stories behind each chapter of the exhibition, to a 300-year-old bed sheet embroidered with human hair.

As historian and presenter of Secrets of The London Underground Siddy Holloway said:

'It was a really impactful exhibition, one of the most impactful ones I've seen in a long time'.

Don't miss out, come and see a somber and sobering part of London's history.

https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london-docklands/whats-on/exhibitions/ex*****ons/five-reasons-visit-ex*****ons-exhibition

The Museum of London Docklands exhibition Executions explores how public ex*****ons were an undeniable feature of city life for over 700 years, featuring many rarely-on-display objects. Looking for something to do in London this weekend? Here are five reasons why you can’t miss it.

25/10/2022

Last Chance to Visit: Rhinebeck Panorama

“Imagine yourself floating across London in a hot air balloon at the beginning of the 19th century with your eyes closed. And then you open them… There it is. There’s the city. All the way to Windsor Castle.”

Join Curator Francis Marshall for a fascinating look at the Rhinebeck Panorama, an epic and detailed view of London at the beginning of the 19th Century. Found tucked into a barrel of pistols in New York State in the 1940s, the drawing remains something of a mystery…

21/10/2022

Was this vest worn by Charles I during his ex*****on? Read on and judge for yourself.

Gifted to the Museum of London by a Mr and Mrs E S Makower in 1924, the ‘Sky-colour Satten Wastecoat’ certainly seems to be of the correct date and quality to have been owned by the King.

The only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, Charles I was beheaded outside Banqueting House, Whitehall on a cold January morning in 1649.

Charles requested two shirts, lest the observing crowd mistake his shivering for fear. As Thomas Herbert, the King’s attendant during his last two years, describes in his memoir of 1678, his master said:

‘Let me have a Shirt on more than ordinary… by reason the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some Observers will imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such Imputation. I fear not Death!’

The challenge of verifying the garment’s authenticity has proved to be complex. None of the depictions of the ex*****ons created at the time are thought to be by eyewitnesses, and have been proven to contain inaccuracies. A clear image of the King on the scaffold has yet to be found.

However, the vest came with a note of authentication attached. It read:

‘This Waistcoat was worn by King Charles the First on the day he was Beheaded and from the Scaffold came into the Hands of Doctor Hobbs his Physician who attended him on that Occasion, The Doctor preserved this Relic of his Royal Master, and from him it Came into the Possession of Susannah Hobbs his Daughter, who married Temple Stanger [Stanyan] of Rawlins in the County of Oxfordshire.’

The vest changed hands several times over the years, before ending up in the possession of the Makowers in 1924.

The stains on the front of the vest were tested in 1959 and 1989 for blood, but the results were inconclusive. Further testing has been decided against, for now. There is still hope that future technology can definitively identify the source of the stains.

While the vest’s provenance cannot currently be proved conclusively, it remains a fascinating artefact and a possible glimpse into a crucial moment in British history.