The Museum of London

Today I learned a valuable lesson about how be to a local tourist - check the opening times. My initial plan was to eat tasty pie 'n' mash at Manze's - London's oldest pie 'n' mash shop - near Tower Bridge. Unfortunately, arriving after a hearty cycle across London, it was closed:
I was hungry, tired, disappointed and it was starting to rain. Nevertheless I still wanted to do something from the list. I decided upon the Museum of London - something I'd passed on my way to Tower Bridge.

Website: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk
Entrance fee: Free

The museum is located atop a hidden-away roundabout in the middle of the City. Although giant white letters clearly label the museum itself I had to walk all the way around the central island looking for a way in until before I spotted the correct entrance on the roundabout's edge. An escalator ride up and a futuristic bridge across and I was outside at the museum.

The museum's galleries cover the history of London from the far past through to the year 1666 AD. Another gallery covering 1666 to the present day is due for completion in 2009 - presumably they're waiting to fill the "London in 2008" display case...
My first stop was London before London, a paradoxically titled exhibition about the history of London from the end of the last ice age through to the Roman invasion in AD43. The exhibition was so thorough - with model settlements, flint axes, faces reconstructed from excavated skulls - that I was surprised it didn't start all the way back with the Big Bang: "First there was nothing. Then there was London."The next gallery was all about the Great Fire of London but, keen to do the exhibits in chronological order, I rushed through it with my eyes half-closed, heading for the Roman Gallery. There were a lot of archaeological pieces on display here - coins, hunks of masonry etc - and even a viewing gallery to see the last remains of the "London Wall" - a sad crumbling ruin.
Next stop was the Medieval gallery covering AD 410-1558. There was a life-sized walk-in replica of a thatched dwelling which looked - and even smelt - very authentic. There was also a detailed model of how St Paul's Cathedral used to look before the Great Fire. The most starling piece was about the Black Death in the 14th century: a video room showed a film about the devastating effects of the mysterious disease - not pleasant at all!
I skimmed over the reformation of the monasteries and made it through to "London 1558-1666". By this time London was having a bit more fun and there were pieces on theatre, antiquities collectors and fancy furniture.
Finally I arrived back at the main exhibition - London's burning - all about the Great Fire of London in 1666. This was daunting stuff - after just 5 days, 4/5ths of the city had burnt down in the fire which, as everybody knows, started in a bakery in Pudding Lane. The eye-witness reports still felt fresh and vivid as they described the disaster - people carting their belongings away, the fierce heat on the wind from the fire, the thieves ransacking abandoned buildings. The fire was eventually stopped by "soldiers and sailors using gunpowder to blow-up houses - thereby making a gap across which the fire couldn't spread". Crickey! In the fire's aftermath architects presented designs to the King for rebuilding the city. As far as I could tell, the designs were never used - the city was rebuilt essentially on the same layout - but, of the designs on display, I was very impressed by Sir Christopher Wren's. It's a shame his didn't make it.

After the Great Fire exhibit I spent an obligatory 5 minutes in the shop - logoed pens, postcards, history books for kids - but nothing really grabbed me.

Summary: Gripping fire exhibition, worth a look back in 2009 when the modern gallery opens.