Museum of London will mark 100 days to closure of its London Wall site this Friday, 26 August, with a special event. The museum will be giving away 500 Lewis of London ice creams from 11:30am, while visitors will also enjoy a performance by Grand Union Orchestra at midday.
Starting this Friday, digital screens will display a countdown clock to mark the days left before the London Wall site closes to the public on Sunday 4 December 2022, in preparation for the museum’s move to a new home at West Smithfield.
The first 100 visitors through the museum’s doors on Friday will receive a goody bag featuring Museum of London memorabilia, including a Museum of London guidebook, a pack of playing cards displaying iconic images from their collections, a greeting card featuring a print by artist Willkay, a Pride tote bag, and a hologram pencil. Goody bags will also feature a special gift of either a tea towel, a Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens mug, a sketch notebook, an A3 print of London or a soft toy.
The event forms part of a six-month long programme of activities leading up to the museum’s closure at London Wall.
In September, the museum will take visitors behind the scenes during Open House on 10 & 11 September. Events will include:
London’s Birth: a 30-minute journey through London’s ancient history from the foundation of London to its destruction in the Great Fire
London’s Rebirth: a 30-minute journey through London’s modern history, from the rebuilding after the Great Fire to the celebration of the 2012 Olympic Games
How the museum works – exclusive storage tour: a look through two of the museum’s collection stores with members of the conservation team, showing visitors the preparations for moving items to the new museum, including inventory, photography and packing processes
How the museum works – exclusive conservation tour: a look through the museum’s Applied Art, Archaeology, Paper and Textile conservation labs, giving visitors insight into the work happening for the new museum at West Smithfield and how the museum takes care of its collections, from case layouts to test out the new display cases to conservation and barcoding
Throughout Open House Weekend, visitors will see a wide range of items from the collection that have never been on public display before including a watercolour and pastel drawing of a Suffragette demonstration and a shower bath from Camberwell Resettlement Unit in Peckham. Also on display are the enormous oil painting ‘Popularity: The Stars of the Edwardian Music Hall’; a large doll’s house from 1908; and a collection of black and white photographs by Henry Grant, which captured Londoners of all ages as they went about their everyday lives.
The six-month programme includes a Black History Month celebration in October, a jam-packed month of school visits in November framed around different themes corresponding to the museum’s collection, and two closing weekend celebration festivals on 26 & 27 November and 2, 3 & 4 December.
The museum’s October half-term programme will celebrate sports in London, inspired by the city’s greatest sporting moments and people, past and present. The range of free activities will run from Saturday 22 to Sunday 30 October and will include:
A 2012 Olympic Games torch-making craft workshop
A collaborative family art piece
A new sports-themed trail through the museum for the entire family
Object handling sessions featuring sports artefacts from prehistory to the present day
Throughout the autumn, the museum will host a series of curator talks, giving visitors a chance to visit the galleries after hours. Curators will guide visitors through their favourite stories and objects in the museum’s collection, themed around prehistoric London, Roman London, Medieval London, and London from 1980 to present day, which will explore the work of Black artists working in the city.
A series of mini documentaries, now available on YouTube, take viewers behind the scenes with curators and hosts to explore ten of the most compelling objects and stories in the museum’s collection. From the Great Fire of London to the Suffragettes movement and the 2012 Olympic Cauldron, the series celebrates some of the most important moments in history that have helped to shape the London of today.
The museum is also part of the City of London’s inaugural Destination City programme, hosting one of three carnival-inspired fairs. The event will transform the Square Mile into a spectacular immersive theatre event on Saturday 15 October for UK and international visitors, workers and residents to enjoy.
Sharon Ament, Director, Museum of London, said: “We invite everyone to join us in celebrating our 45-year history at London Wall as we count down the days until the Museum of London closes to the public. There’s so much happening over our final hundred days. I can’t wait to welcome thousands and thousands of visitors coming for one last time before our City HQ moves to West Smithfield in just a few years. Our jam-packed series of events will allow visitors to peek behind the scenes and learn about some of London’s most historic moments.”
The Museum of London Docklands will remain open to visitors with a major exhibition Executions opening on 14 October 2022.
