The Museum of London documents the history of the UK’s capital city from prehistoric to modern times and is located in the City of London on the London Wall, close to the Barbican Centre and is part of the Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 1970s to redevelop a bomb-damaged area of the City. The museum is a few minutes’ walk north of St Paul’s Cathedral, overlooking the remains of the Roman city wall and on the edge of the oldest part of London, now its main financial district. It is primarily concerned with the social history of London and its inhabitants throughout time. The museum is jointly controlled and funded by the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority. The museum is the largest urban history collection in the world, with more than six million objects.
In March 2015, the museum announced plans to move from its Barbican site to nearby Smithfield Market. The move, contingent upon raising an estimated £70 million, is planned to be complete by 2021. Plans for the vacated Barbican site include the Centre for Music, a permanent home for the London Symphony Orchestra. 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. The cost of the move was estimated to be in the region of £70 million and, if funding could be achieved, the estimated completion date was 2021. It was later discovered that the building project would be more complex than first thought, and the deadline for opening was pushed back to 2024.
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.
In 2003, the Museum of London Docklands (formerly Museum in Docklands) was opened in a 19th-century grade I listed warehouse near Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. 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. In November 2007, it opened the capital’s first permanent gallery examining London’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, “London, Sugar & Slavery”.
Once part of the Museum of London, Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) became an independent charity in November 2011, regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. MOLA now has its own Board of Trustees but the Museum of London and MOLA continue to work together. MOLA employs around 190 archaeologists working on most of the major archaeological sites in London. Independence gives MOLA a stronger remit; it streamlines operations, reduces duplication and cuts red tape. Originally, MOLA was a much smaller department within the Museum of London but it expanded hugely – and outgrew its parent organisation. Independence gives MOLA the freedom to operate and to explore new markets across the country and overseas. The Museum of London and MOLA retain close links via a partnership arrangement set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This is to the clear benefit of both organisations and includes key areas of collaboration – on initiatives such as educational outreach, fundraising and public relations. MOLA will continue to have its headquarters at Mortimer Wheeler House (in Shoreditch) and share specialist expertise and equipment with Museum of London colleagues at London Wall.
