Collections in focus

• 
  17th Century trade tokens
  Trade tokens were issued in the 17th century, between 1648 and 1673, in response to a lack of low denomination being produced by the crown. To ease the monetary situation, boroughs and cities across the country, began producing tokens to be used within the locality; in London the situation differed, ...
• 
  Bassano Fashion Photography
  This collection of images is part of the large group of over 3,000 glass negative plates documenting clothing, fashion and accessories taken at the studios of Bassano Limited in London between c. 1912 and 1945. The plates document the expansion from the society portraiture with which Alexander Bassano established his ...
• 
  Bridge
  To cross the Thames by bridge is to see London. Most of the time we are in a maze of streets and the city reveals itself in fragments. However, the river opens up the city and, on a bridge, the full architectural panorama is laid out. Iconic views of St ...
• 
  Cloth seals
  The museum?s lead cloth seal collection, comprising almost 2,500 items dating from the 14th to early 19th century, is the largest in the public domain. Most were recovered from the Thames foreshore and have survived in a remarkable state of preservation. They provide crucial evidence for quality control in the ...
• 
  Decorated samian ware
  Samian ware is a highly-prized Roman ceramic tableware, produced in Gaul (modern France), and exported throughout the empire. It is distinctive for its red/orange glossy appearance. Samian ware was produced in a variety of forms, and both plain and decorated examples were made. The Museum holds some 13,500 pieces of ...
• 
  Dice
  The Museum of London holds an important collection of over 170 dice from a range of archaeological periods, excavated from across London over the past 60 years. Evidence for dice in London dates back to the Iron Age and no doubt these not uncommon objects have been used to play ...
• 
  Dress for Dance
  The variety found in the Museum's collection of dance costumes maps London's complex cultural landscape, where performance has always been at the heart of the city's identity. The objects embody an eclectic breadth around 'dance' in three broad areas - ballet, social dance, and dance entertainment, ranging from dolls dressed ...
• 
  Festival of Britain
  The idea of the Festival of Britain first came about in 1943 when the Royal Society of Arts proposed an international exhibition to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1947 the Labour Government decided that this should be a national celebration of Britain’s victory in the ...
• 
  Janet Arnold's 'Patterns of Fashion'
  This group brings together objects examined by Janet Arnold for several of her 'Patterns of Fashion' books. Patterns of eight dresses spanning the period from around 1860 to the late 1920s appeared in 'Patterns of Fashion 1' first published in 1972. 'Patterns of Fashion 3' from 1985 contained a leather ...
• 
  Leather sheaths and scabbards
  This group contains the leather sheaths and scabbards from the Museum of London?s reserve collections, dating from c. 900 to c. 1650. The Museum holds some of the best medieval leather collections in the world, largely due to the good preservation conditions in London. Leather is an organic material and ...
• 
  London and the Olympic Games
  The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games took place from July to September 2012. Both events were tremendously successful, generating popular enthusiasm in abundance. The London 2012 Games were the latest chapter in London's long history of involvement with the Olympic movement. London had hosted the modern Olympic Games twice ...
• 
  Medieval leather shoes
  This group contains the leather shoes and pattens from the Museum of London's reserve collections, dating from c. 900 to c. 1500. The Museum holds some of the best leather collections in the world, due to the good preservation conditions in London. The footwear in this group is dated by ...
• 
  Medieval pilgrim souvenirs
  The Museum of London has an internationally important collection of medieval pilgrim souvenirs in its reserve collection (and also in its Archaeological Archive). Most of the souvenirs are in the form of badges but there are also ampullae (small bottles for holy water), figurines, pendants and other trinkets. Pilgrim souvenirs ...
• 
  Photographers London
  Since the birth of photography, London and its people have featured largely and contributed greatly to the evolution of the medium. This wealth of imagery leaves us overwhelmingly spoilt for choice, providing us with an invaluable insight to the city and its inhabitants, both historically and today. Some of the ...
• 
  Port Commodities
  Digitised with the support of The Worshipful Company of Grocers. By the late 1930s the port of London was handling over 41 million tons of import cargo a year - making it the most important port in Europe. The port operation involved four elements: the loading and unloading of cargoes ...
• 
  Roman Bone Hairpins
  The Museum of London holds one of the largest and most important collections of Roman hairpins in the world, including over a thousand made from bone (other materials include copper-alloy, glass and stone), the majority having been excavated from the city over the past 45 years. Hairpins were used by ...
• 
  Roman Coins
  This collection of over 5000 roman coins boasts some very fine examples of copper alloy, silver and gold coinage. Spanning no less than seven centuries, the collection charts the Roman age; from the height of the Republic through to the rise and eventual dissolution of the Western-Roman Empire and the ...
• 
  Roman Lamps
  The Museum of London cares for a large and important collection of Roman ceramic lamps. This curated group brings together detailed records of more than 500 lamps from the Archaeological Archive, all found in excavations in London between the 1950s and the early 1990s. Londinium was one of the biggest ...
• 
  Silvertown explosion
  At 6.52pm on Friday 19 January, 1917, a massive explosion tore through Brunner Mond & Co munitions factory in Silvertown, East London. Fifty tonnes of TNT exploded, in what remains London?s largest ever explosion. 900 local homes were flattened, and 60,000 buildings damaged throughout London. Burning debris was scattered for ...
• 
  The Cheapside Hoard
  For almost 300 years a buried treasure lay undisturbed below one of London's busiest streets. No one knew it was there until workmen started to demolish a timber-framed building in Cheapside near St Paul's Cathedral, in June 1912. The property had stood on the site since the 17th century, but ...
• 
  The Great Fire of London 1666
  The Great Fire of London is one of the most well-known disasters in London's history. It began on 2 September 1666 and lasted just under five days. One-third of London was destroyed and about 100,000 people were made homeless. The fire started at 1am on Sunday morning in Thomas Farriner's ...
• 
  The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift
  The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was the first of three youth movements led by the British artist, John Hargrave (1894–1982). The Kindred was founded in 1920. In the early 1930s Hargrave renamed the group The Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit. In 1935 the Green Shirts evolved into The ...
• 
  The Suffragettes
  In 1903 the 'votes for women' campaign was energised by the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U). Founded in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, the W.S.P.U. aimed to 'wake up the nation' to the cause of women's suffrage through 'Deeds not Words'. The decision to ...
• 
  The photographs of A G Linney
  Few people can have loved London's river as much as Albert Gravely Linney (1873–1936). He was a writer and journalist, a creditable cricketer in his youth, and a keen amateur photographer. As a young man he trained as a teacher and then took passage on a small barque from the ...
• 
  Theatrical Ephemera
  In nineteenth century London the theatre was a popular pastime. London's stationers and print shops sold toy paper theatres, character sheets, and theatrical portraits. These souvenir portrait prints featured actors and actresses in character in their more successful roles. The theatrical portraits were produced in London from copperplates. Theatrical portraits ...
• 
  Valentines Cards
  The Museum of London's valentine card collection holds over 1,700 cards produced in the city. Most of these cards were made in the workshops of Islington stationer, Jonathan King. King ran a card-making workshop with his mother next door to his shop in Essex Road. Here staff would assemble cards ...
• 
  Wall Family Phonograph Recordings
  This collection contains some of the earliest, clearest and most vibrant home phonograph recordings known to survive. They were recorded between 1902 and 1917 by Cromwell Wall (1866-1937), a civil engineer who lived with his family in what was then the new north London suburb of New Southgate. Cromwell's father, ...