Guided tours
Complement your visit to Museum of London Docklands with one of our guided tours, walks or talks. Whether you are after highlights of the Museum or a more in-depth introduction to London and the slave trade our tours will inspire your curiosity. And if you’re looking for something different you can also request special behind-the-scenes visits as well as tours focusing on alternative subjects.
Introductory talk
Duration: 45 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
Relax within the Museum of London Docklands’ Wilberforce Theatre while curator Tom Wareham gives you an illustrated overview of the gallery narrative and Museum history.
With Dr Tom Wareham, Curator of Community and Maritime Histories, Museum of London Docklands
Highlights tour
Duration: 1 Hour
Price: £7.50 per person
Join one of our Visitor Assistants for a highlights tour that will give you an overview of the London’s river, port and people. The tour will focus on key exhibits and displays in the Museum story.
An introduction to London and the slave trade
Duration: 45 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
This illustrated talk within the Museum of London Docklands Wilberforce Theatre explores London’s largely unknown role in the transatlantic slave trade. The talk reveals how intimately London’s wealth was connected with the slave plantations of the West Indies, and how the profits and produce from the sugar colonies helped create the greatest imperial port in the world. This talk can be complemented by a visit to the critically-acclaimed London, Sugar & Slavery gallery.
With Dr Tom Wareham, Curator of Community and Maritime Histories, Museum of London Docklands
Walk the Olympic Way
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
Learn about the past and future of the London 2012 Olympic site. Find out how the area has changed over the years and the effect this has had on the local community. The walk will cover historic locations like the Abbey Mills Pumping Station (built by Joseph Bazalgette as part of his Victorian sewer system), the clearing and decontamination of land in
preparation for the Games, and the finds unearthed on the site by Museum of London archaeologists. Please note that this walk may be affected by the closure of some footpaths for construction work.
Old Poplar
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
Take a guided walk along Poplar High Street and recapture the story of Old Poplar, learning how life in this historic area has changed over the decades. Poplar has been a place of contrasts, where dire poverty exemplified by the harsh conditions of Poplar Workhouse could be found alongside the wealth generated by the East India Docks. The walk will include the beautiful Old Poplar Library, St Matthias Church (formerly a chapel of the East India Company), and tales of colourful goings-on at the White Horse pub and the Queen's Theatre music hall.
New Poplar after World War II
Duration: 2 hours
Price: £7.50 per person
After the Blitz reduced swathes of the East End to bomb-scarred wilderness, there was an urgent need for reconstruction. From the ruins arose the Lansbury Estate in Poplar, a housing development so radical that boatloads of tourists came from 1951's Festival of Britain to see it. On this walk your guide will explain how new ideas and building materials helped London recover from the devastation of World War II.
West India Docks
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £7.50 per person
London's oldest enclosed docks, the West India Docks are now home to the Canary Wharf Estate. Discover the surviving warehouses, workshops and monuments that still bear witness to the Port of London's heyday and learn about the lives of the dockers themselves – their working practices, how they fought for their rights, and the marks they left on the surrounding neighbourhood.
Chinatown and Limehouse
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
Aided by vintage photographs enjoy a tour through the streets of Limehouse, site of London's first Chinatown. Chinese sailors began to settle here in the 1880s and soon bestowed a distinctive character on the area. Limehouse became infamous as a haunt of opium fiends and criminal gangs, but was this reputation deserved? This walk reveals legacies of the old Chinatown and separates the myths from the truth about this fascinating part of East London.
North Greenwich
Duration: 2 hours
Price: £7.50 per person
Discover how this peninsula changed from desolate marshland to a leisure hub. The walk will cover the industrial heritage of the area, while glorious views across the Thames will showcase the old shipping routes into London. You'll also learn about the construction of the O2 and the surrounding regeneration project that's bringing nature back to this previously contaminated stretch of riverside.
Regeneration
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
A talk about the Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs area during which you will be taken through time to learn how Canary Wharf became what it is today.
Africans in Sailortown
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £7.50 per person
Explore the story surrounding the people, jobs and conditions of Africans in Sailortown between 1820-1830.
Art Talk Walk
Duration: 2 hours
Price: £7.50 per person
A tour of art specific sites around the Canary Wharf and West India Quay estates.
Chinatown
Duration: 1 hour
Price: £7.50 per person
Enjoy this walk to old Chinatown in Limehouse. Find out where Chinatown used to be and why it moved to Soho, and discover the area’s historic buildings and colourful characters.
Archaeological archive tour
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: £7.50 per person
See behind the scenes at the Museum of London's Mortimer Wheeler House based in Hackney, with this tour of the Museum's award winning archaeological archive. Mortimer Wheeler House has an incredible 10 km of shelves to hold the archaeological archives of London, allowing community members and researchers to try and make sense of the past. So take a visit to see where London's finds go after the excavations finish and also marvel at the Museum of London's collection of ceramics and glass.
Please note all tours, with the exception of the Introductory Talk, can accommodate a minimum of 10 people and a maximum of 20. If your group size exceeds this please contact the Box Office on 020 7001 9844 to discuss how we can accommodate your group.