Museum of London

Museum of London Review

If there's one place to absorb the history of London, from 450,000 BC to the present day, it's here: Oliver Cromwell's death mask, Queen Victoria's crinoline gowns, Selfridges' art deco elevators, the London's Burning exhibition, fans, guns and jewelry, an original Newgate Prison Door, and the incredible late-18th-century Blackett Dolls House—7,000 objects to wonder at in all. The museum appropriately shelters a section of the 2nd- to 4th-century London wall, which you can view through a window, and permanent displays highlight Pre-Roman, Roman, Medieval, and Tudor London. The Galleries of Modern London are equally enthralling: experience the "Expanding City," "People's City," and "World City," each gallery dealing with a section of London's history from 1666 until the 21st century. Innovative interactive displays abound, and you can even wander around a 19th-century London street with impressively detailed shopfronts and interiors, including a pawnbrokers, a pub, a barber, and a bank manager's office, in case you're running short on holiday money. There's also a fine schedule of temporary exhibitions.