In 2019 the Museum of London showed plans for its new home - which will be a Museum for London. About the new museum at Culture Mile, and on the New Museum site.
The Museum of London(above) is moving to a new site in West Smithfield - and in July 2019 the Museum started consultation with an exhibition in a former meat salesroom on the derelict site. Here is what the site looks like from the air at present - and how it will look in future. There’s more impressions below.
I walked along Charterhouse Street to the exhibition, and talked to museum staff and architects.
The main Smithfield Market buildings, to the east of the new museum site, are still in operation. There has been a livestock market in the Smithfield area for 800 years, and the current buildings were completed in 1868. They will become vacant when the market moves to Dagenham, but can’t be demolished because of their listed status. There’s currently a consultation on the move too.
The new museum will sit in atmospheric but currently dilapidated market buildings, at the heart of one of the capital’s most historic and creative quarters, Smithfield.
They are a perfect home for a new Museum of London: not shiny new buildings or a grand old palace, but very special market structures grounded in the working and trading history of the city.
Moving to Smithfield from our current site at 150 London Wall means that we will be able to do so much more, for many more people. It will give us street-level entrances in a wonderful neighbourhood, better transport links courtesy of the Elizabeth line, and the opportunity to create innovative new galleries, exhibitions and events. The new Museum of London will be one of the highlights of the Culture Mile, located in the north-western part of the City of London.
After I left the exhibition I walked around the corner to compare a view of the derelict site now with impressions of the future.
The aim is to make the Museum a 24-hour experience
Museum of London now
Then, now and the future
The exhibition