No. 1 Warehouse: Intro gallery
Our building is a rare survivor of the old London docks and its story is at the heart of this gallery.
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This gallery kicks off our story about London's Docklands.
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Our 19th-century museum building once stored imported sugar, rum and tea.
The story of our building begins in 1802, when London's first enclosed dock system was created, known as West India Docks. The museum building is one of the last remaining fragments of those old docks and stored valuable imports like sugar, rum and tea.
The building reveals how the docks and warehouse operated in those times. The beam-scales suspended from the roof timbers were used daily, weighing heavy sacks and crates as they entered and left the building.
The cast-iron window grilles remind us of the tight security needed when it was filled with valuables from all over the world. The view over the dock – seen through a loophole door – gives a glimpse of how cargoes were hoisted in from below.
The warehouse was a hive of activity, with cargoes constantly being unloaded and reloaded. The gallery’s archival film and sound brings the the building back to life and reminds us of this busy past.
The warehouse closed in the 1980s, after nearly 200 years.
No.1 Warehouse is open 10am – 5pm every day at London Museum Docklands.
Please note that we'll start closing up the galleries at around 4.40pm.
There's lots to see, so we recommend you spend at least 15 minutes in the No.1 Warehouse gallery.
It's the first gallery on our recommended route and you'll find it on the Third Floor.
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Port & River
Port & RiverLow pattern deadweight platform scales/weighing machine
Vandome, Titford & Pawson
1866-1875
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London Museum DocklandsTrade Expansion: 1600–1800
Meet the merchants, sailors and pirates who transformed London in the 1600s
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London Museum DocklandsLondon, Sugar & Slavery: 1600 – present
Shining a light on London’s overlooked role in slavery
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London Museum DocklandsCity and River: 1800–1840
A city transformed by its river with new docks, new bridges and new tunnels
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London Museum DocklandsSailortown: 1840–1850
Experience the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian London in a recreation of a street in Wapping
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London Museum DocklandsFirst Port of Empire: 1840–1880
When London was at the centre of the British empire and world trade
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London Museum DocklandsWarehouse of the World: 1880–1939
London's docks housed everything you could think of, giving them the title: Warehouse of the World
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London Museum DocklandsDocklands at War: 1939–1945
How London survived and helped the war effort, from Dunkirk to D-Day
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London Museum DocklandsNew Port, New City: 1945 – present
How Docklands was reinvented for a new century – from rebuilding, dereliction and back to rebuilding
