London stories
Explore the stories of the world's greatest city and uncover the hidden treasures of our collections.
All stories


The Jewish East End
How Spitalfields and Whitechapel offered new lives to thousands fleeing persecution

Jumbo the Elephant
How a 19th-century animal celebrity gave us a massive new word

Silvertown 1917: London’s largest explosion
73 people died when an east London factory making TNT caught fire and exploded

The Stone Age skull rescued from the River Thames
Found after 5,000 years in the mud

The surprising diversity of Roman London
A city home to people from Turkey, Germany and Greece


Who was Admiral Nelson?
Nelson's naval victories gave him national hero status and a permanent place in Trafalgar Square



Harrods: A location for luxury
From humble beginnings to one of the biggest emporiums in Europe

London’s public executions
Hung, drawn and quartered. Beheaded, boiled or burned

Pleasure gardens: London’s first music venues
Handel at Vauxhall? Mozart at Ranelagh? For 18th-century music fans, these were the places to be

The Great Stink of 1858
A smell so incredibly awful it demanded a modern sewer solution

The history of the Docklands Light Railway
The DLR was built to transform London’s docklands

What is the Port of London Authority?
Steering the River Thames through changing tides and turbulent times

Barbara Lisicki: A disability rights pioneer
Lisicki led the charge to win civil rights for disabled people in the 1990s