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Museum of London Review

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Museum of London

Address: London Wall, The City, London, EC2Y 5HN
Phone: 0870/444-3851
www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: The City

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Fodor's Review:

If there's one place to get the history of London sorted out, right from 450,000 BC to the present day, it's here—although there's a great deal to sort out: Oliver Cromwell's death mask, Queen Victoria's crinoline gowns, Selfridges' art deco elevators, and the London's Burning exhibition are just some of the goodies. The museum appropriately shelters a section of the 2nd- to 4th-century London wall, which you can view from a window inside. The displays—like one on the Great Fire, a 1940s air-raid shelter, a Georgian prison cell, a Roman living room, and a Victorian street complete with fully stocked shops—are complemented by rich soundscapes that atmospherically re-create London life through the ages. Some of the lower galleries are closed for modernization and will reopen in spring 2010. The new vision will also include a section of 21st-century London to explore. The archaeologists and curators at the museum regularly leap from AD to BC, as fresh building work in the city uncovers more treasures. None, though, have been as exciting as the ongoing project of preserving and displaying the Roman amphitheater at the Guildhall, and you can see the rewards of that excavation in the artifacts here.

Cost: Free
Open: Mon.-Sat. 10-5:50, Sun. noon-5:50; last admission 5:30
Tube: Barbican, St. Paul's

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