London’s Biggest New Museum Lets You Watch Trains From the Basement

The London Museum opens its new home at Smithfield on Saturday, November 28, 2026, ending a four-year wait since the old Museum of London closed its doors near the Barbican in late 2022. The museum has moved into the General Market building at West Smithfield, a Victorian market hall designed by Sir Horace Jones and opened in 1883. Entry is free, though booking a timed ticket for the opening period is recommended.

The project has cost about £437 million and was designed by Stanton Williams and Asif Khan, with Julian Harrap as conservation architects. The museum draws on a collection of some seven million objects, arranged across three main spaces: Real Time, Our Time, which features 13 large installations, and Past Time. Among the highlights is the Cheapside Hoard, a cache of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewels, shown in its fullest display yet in a dedicated Goldsmiths’ Gallery.

One of the most unusual features is underground. The basement was once a railway goods yard, and a six-metre glass window now looks directly onto live Thameslink trains passing beneath the building. Elsewhere, visitors can touch a charred brick from the Great Fire, see Anna Pavlova’s Dying Swan costume, and find the bass guitar Paul Simonon smashed on the cover of The Clash’s London Calling.

A first season, London Tastes, runs from November 2026 to August 2027, and a gallery on Roman London is due in spring 2027. A second phase in the neighboring Poultry Market follows in 2028. The nearest stations are Farringdon and Barbican. Note that Elizabeth line services are disrupted that same opening weekend, so visitors coming from Heathrow or Paddington should plan their route in advance.

Sources: Londontopia, ianVisits