Museum of London Docklands – History of the Thames

Craig’s review… You have to be seriously into the history of London to enjoy this place. Try the Museum of London first (for the city’s history) and then this one for the river’s history, because it concentrates almost solely on the docks.

The first thing they tell you about is the building itself: an old Georgian sugar store. They’ve got a little exhibition of hooks and trolleys and baskets and you can hear a few creaks and seagulls through the speakers. They you can watch a few black and white movies projected onto the wooden walls where dirty-faced dockers lug sacks and bags of sugar cane off the boats.

After that you can wander through a full-sized mock up of a quay – a street scene straight from the 18th-century complete with lantern-lit shops, a custom house, counting house, and stacks of barrels piled up against the wall.

East India Company

Then comes a bit about the East India Company and the inevitable hairshirt about the British Empire. I know the slave trade was a terrible tragedy and a travesty and all of that, but the British Empire did actually do some good as well, believe it or not, but all we ever hear about is its sins. They’ve even set up a comment wall where we can apologise on our ancestors’ behalf! Maybe they should set up a bucket of rocks and stocks so we Brits can take turns sitting in it.

Fortunately it cheers up after that with another walkthrough street that’s even more atmospheric than the first one. You can peer into the shops and see your shadow growing on the sooty arch as you pass by the pub. The noises they’ve got playing out of the speakers greatly add to the atmosphere with sea shanties and clock bells in the fog – it really is good and I almost wish I had a time machine so I could travel back and experience it for real.

After that you can see some great paintings of the docks bristling with ships and it looks like the King’s coronation parade – but this was just a typical working day back then. Imagine if the docks were still filled with sailing ships and warships these days… three deep, four deep, all the way from Greenwich to Tower Bridge. What a spectacle that would be!

Victorian London & The Blitz

The next floor is all about Victorian London and the transformation of the wharves and warehouses along the river. This is when the clipper ships start turning into tankers, the little workshops start turning into belching industrial factories, everyone starts to get ill and soon it’s all fire, strife and strikes. But just wait until you hit the Blitz and see the firestorms that sweep across the East End. You can hear the whining air raid sirens and cracks and whistles in the wood of the burning buildings as the conflagration consumes the city.

All of those historic buildings that were built up over the centuries – gone. All of that history that you’ve been admiring in the previous rooms – gone. Three centuries of history disappeared in three years. It’s quite an exhibit and will probably bring back a few terrible memories if you were old enough to have witnessed it the first time.

Worth a visit? ★★☆Value for money? freeGood for kids? ★☆☆Easy to get to? ★★☆

I also recommend… If you enjoy this then try London Canal Museum (travel from West India Quay to Kings Cross St Pancras by underground) and Museum of London (travel from West India Quay to Barbican by tube). There’s another big model of Old London Bridge at St. Magnus the Martyr church

The author Craig Cross owns city-guide.london and has spent the last decade reviewing the capital’s landmarks, attractions and hotels. His guidebook London Squire is available from Amazon