Trades & Workers

Steering the River Thames through changing tides and turbulent times

The medieval saint who watched over the Elizabeth Line

What can a toilet roll tell us about the history of women’s access to work and leisure?

In the past and present, Londoners have experimented with different forms of money

And the history of London’s traffic stoppers

The Chinese communities who lived in this pocket of the East End

These colourful toys were sold on the streets by some of London’s poorest citizens

These were once the world’s largest docks, built to handle goods from Caribbean slave plantations

A grumpy printer dumped his masterpiece into the Thames to spite his partner. A hundred years on, mudlarks fished it back up

One of the defining industrial disputes of the 1970s happened in a north-west London suburb

This small but mighty river was vital to life in the Roman and medieval city

In a busy city, your voice can make a sale

Roman vino from the border of Barnet and Harrow

The Wapping drop-off point for wine, tobacco, spices and ivory between 1805 and 1968

John Thomson’s fascinating photographs reveal the lives of workers in 19th-century London

A sword-making centre in the mid-1600s

How the speediest ship on the late 19th-century seas came to a standstill in Greenwich

Sandra Flett’s snapshot of trade and industry on London’s liquid highway