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

Locket portraits of London’s container shipping crews
Artist Hilary Powell illuminates the invisible lives of the international shipping industry

Photographing hidden worlds on the banks of the Thames
Portraits of the barren underbelly of London’s bridges, wharfs and piers

Flooded London
Before the Thames Barrier, flooding in London was regularly destructive and often deadly

Riz Ahmed: Actor, rapper, north-west Londoner
The Wembley-born star brings London and his life story into his work

The Rhinebeck Panorama: A game-changing view
Found in a barrel in 1941, this vast panorama shows the awesome spread of London in 1806

Temple Bar: London’s last surviving gateway
Royal ceremonies, human heads – and a brief spell in Hertfordshire

The Prévost Panorama: See London in 1815
An epic six-metre-long painting shows us a very different view from Westminster

A walk through 1920s London
George Davison Reid’s years-long photography project shows us London between two world wars

Morley’s: South London’s chicken shop
The pride of south London since 1985, courtesy of bossman

Ian Wright: Arsenal hero, London legend
This ex-footballer and pundit from Brockley has won hearts on and off the pitch

Hop-picking: Londoners’ working holiday
Going ‘hopping’ in Kent was once a rare summertime escape from city life

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: A pioneering doctor
The first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor

The sinking of the Princess Alice
Catastrophe struck on the River Thames in 1878 when a cargo ship collided with a tourist boat

The People’s Vote marches against Brexit
After the UK voted to exit the European Union in 2016, hundreds of thousands called for a second referendum

Stop the War 2003: London’s largest ever protest
In 2003, more than a million people marched through the capital to protest against the UK’s war in Iraq

Elizabeth Fry: Pioneering prison reformer
Fry’s injection of kindness transformed the prison experience for Victorian women