Hotels near Museum of London Docklands

In keeping with its waterside location, the Museum of London Docklands focuses on the history of the East End with particular emphasis on the River Thames and the lives that have ebbed and flowed with it. The building in which the museum is housed is pertinent, too. As a warehouse and part of a significant port, the building was once used to store valuable shipments of sugar arriving from transatlantic crossings. Permanent educational displays include the Thames Highway - the trade which the river has enabled since the city began as a Roman settlement in AD43 makes for a fascinating tale. The display includes a spectacular large scale model of Old London Bridge, the first stone structure over the Thames with the bridge as it was in 1450 on one side, the bridge in all its Tudor glory on the other. Walk around the permanent 'London, Sugar & Slavery' exhibition and you'll see how sugar was a key factor in the city's development.