A MEGA new museum all about one major city is opening in the UK later this year.
Having been developed over the past decade, the London Museum will open in Smithfield, London, on November 28.
The £437million museum – which will be housed in Smithfield’s General Market – will become the world’s largest city museum.
There will be a total of three different spaces documenting the past 10,000 years of the capital with over seven million objects on display.
The first space, called ‘Real Time’, will be a covered street where visitors enter with real time data displayed around them about different parts of London.
Underneath the former market’s domed roof, visitors will then enter the ‘Our Time’ space, which will be the central area of the museum with events and activities including immersive theatre.
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The area will have 13 installations about London, a restaurant and a bookshop, with festivals and markets planned for the future too.
Other activities at the museum will include dinner clubs and after-hours DJ sessions on Fridays and Saturdays.
And finally, the main permanent gallery, which will be known as ‘Past Time’, will be underground and take visitors through London’s history.
Most of the objects will be found on this floor and will range massively, including the recent ‘Piranhas’ artwork by Banksy on show as well as older pieces such as Charles I’s execution vest.
Other objects that will go on display include swimming trunks worn by Tom Daley for the 2012 London Olympics, loads of Elizabethan jewellery and Paul Simonon from The Clash’s bass guitar, which he smashed on stage.
A coffee stand – Syd’s Coffee Stall – that stood in Shoreditch for over a century will be in the museum as well, serving hot drinks as part of a Tuesday Tea Club at the museum.
There will be a unique feature on the lower level of the museum too, where visitors can look through a giant six-metre tall window to see Thameslink trains pass by the museum.
General Market opened back in 1883 as a meat market but has stood abandoned for the past three decades.
In 2028, the Poultry Market – which is next door – will also become part of the museum and will be home to exhibition spaces, a learning centre and collections store.
The spaces in the Poultry Market will be called ‘Temporary Time’, ‘Imagined Time’ and ‘Deep Time’.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “The opening of the new London Museum will be a hugely significant moment both for London and internationally.
“Backed by one of the largest ever cultural investments in our capital, London Museum will attract millions of visitors and Londoners and reinforce our status as the cultural capital of the world.
“London Museum celebrates the past, creates opportunities in the present and will inspire future generations, as we continue to build a better London for everyone.”