Museum of London to close ahead of West Smithfield move

The museum is moving to the historic market buildings of West Smithfield

The Museum of London is to close in December ahead of its relocation to new premises, it has been announced.

The venue has been based at London Wall in the City of London since 1976, but is set to move to the former market site in West Smithfield in 2025.

The new building will first host a festival ahead of its official opening under a new name - The London Museum.

The museum's director said it would be "a new civic space for millions of visitors to enjoy, 24 hours a day".

Opening hours will be extended on Friday and Saturday nights

From June, a series of events and displays will take place at the existing site celebrating some of the exhibitions held there over the past 45 years.

Once it closes, the museum's other site in Docklands will remain open but the main premises will be shut while the Smithfield market buildings - which have been derelict for three decades - are redeveloped.

The festival in 2025 will feature music and art commissions ahead of the museum's official opening.

Visitors will be able to see Thameslink trains whizzing past the museum galleries

Once it does, the multimillion-pound building will feature new large spaces, with Thameslink trains even running through the galleries as they travel between King's Cross and Blackfriars.

The museum said the new space would allow more of its collection to be put on display, including the Cheapside Hoard, which is considered to be one of the world's finest collections of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery. It was found by chance on a building site in 1912.

A hexagonal emerald-cased verge watch forms part of the Cheapside Hoard

Other exhibitions will include the history of protest, with the Trump Baby blimp floating above it, and a look at the life of Fortunata, a young slave who lived in London during the Roman era who archaeologists found a reference of on a wax writing tablet in the River Walbrook in the 1990s.

The museum's opening hours also are set to be extended, with late nights on Fridays and Saturdays, while small independent businesses will be set up in a row of terraced houses around the perimeter of the building to further enhance the area.

Forgotten underground vaults found while development works have been taking place will form part of the museum space

Director Sharon Ament said: "This will be more than a museum, it will tell the story of all Londoners - past, present and future; it will be a new civic space for millions of visitors to enjoy, 24 hours a day, and it will be a living, breathing building that buzzes with the energy of Londoners."

The City of London Corporation property investment board is currently consulting on proposals for the current London Wall site, with plans including new office space to help fund the museum's relocation.

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