London Museum has announced that it will open the doors to its long-awaited new home in Smithfield on 28th November 2026, marking one of the most significant cultural openings in the capital in decades.
Occupying the restored Victorian General Market in the heart of the City of London, the new museum has been conceived not simply as a place to display history but as a major new social and cultural destination for the city. Opening in time for the institution’s 50th anniversary, the launch completes the first phase of a decade-long transformation of the historic market buildings. The adjacent Poultry Market will follow in 2028, adding temporary exhibition galleries, a dedicated learning centre and collections storage.
Designed by Stanton Williams and Asif Khan alongside conservation architects Julian Harrap, the £437 million project returns the Grade II-listed General Market to public use for the first time in more than thirty years. Located in one of London’s oldest neighbourhoods, the museum sits within walking distance of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Barbican and Smithfield Market, positioning it at the centre of an increasingly important cultural district.
At its core will be a new public gathering space known as Our Time, housed beneath the market’s restored dome. Conceived as a day-to-night social hub, the space will host exhibitions, performances, talks, family programming and events in partnership with organisations including fabric nightclub, Punchdrunk Enrichment and Hive Curates. Visitors will encounter a mix of historic and contemporary London, from the Lord Mayor’s Coach and East End institution Syd’s Coffee Stall to installations exploring the city’s ever-changing social fabric.
The museum’s inaugural cultural programme, London Tastes, will be guest-edited by food writer Ruby Tandoh and Vittles founder Jonathan Nunn. Running from November 2026 to August 2027, the programme will explore London’s food culture through exhibitions, events, talks and public gatherings, reflecting the city’s rich culinary history and contemporary food scene. Sponsored by Sainsbury’s, it will examine everything from Brick Lane and pie-and-mash shops to chicken shop culture and London’s global food networks.
Below ground, visitors will discover Past Time, a vast new permanent display tracing London’s history from prehistoric settlement to the present day. Drawn from the museum’s seven-million-object collection — the largest collection relating to a single city anywhere in the world — the galleries will feature treasures including the Cheapside Hoard, Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger strike medal, Banksy’s Piranhas artwork, the infamous Whitechapel Fatberg, Charles I’s execution vest and Tom Daley’s London 2012 Olympic diving trunks.
One of the museum’s most unusual features will be a six-metre viewing window built into the galleries, allowing visitors to watch Thameslink trains passing through the site while passengers catch glimpses of the museum in return.
Sharon Ament, Director of London Museum, said:
“At the beginning we asked ourselves how to be the best museum for London, the answer is, to be London itself, in all its grit and glitter. We’ve done it with the very best; designers, historians, curators, builders, architects, artists, poets, writers, creators to name a few, all are shapers of London.”
More than 100,000 people have contributed to the development of the new museum, which aims to tell London’s story through both iconic objects and everyday experiences. With free permanent galleries, a major public programme and a renewed focus on community participation, London Museum is positioning itself as far more than a traditional museum — instead becoming a living cultural space for one of the world’s most complex and constantly evolving cities.
Exclusive digital content about the museum and The Bloomberg Collection will be available via Bloomberg Connects the free arts and culture app
MORE: londonmuseum.org.uk/smithfield
