Warehouse of the World: 1880–1939
London’s docks were booming. Quaysides and warehouses housed every commodity you could think of, giving London the title: Warehouse of the World.
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London quickly became home to exotic goods from all over the world.
Warehouses were full of spices, sugar, meat, fruit, coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs, furs, leather, timber, wool and more – mostly from the British empire. In this gallery, you'll see a cabinet full of samples of these that were used to identify goods.
A wide range of ships brought these cargoes to London. In the period 1840 to 1875, sleek and fast clippers carried tea from China and wool from Australia. Heavy, four-masted barques carried wool, grain and nitrate in bulk. By the late 1880s, steam had overtaken sail.
Despite this success, there was trouble in the waters. Dock workers were frustrated with the poor pay and working conditions. This eventually erupted in the 1889 dock strike which brought the port to a halt.
The strike was a success and pay went up to half a shilling an hour (worth £2.05 today), known as the "dockers' tanner".
Warehouse of the World 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 Warehouse of the World gallery.
It's the seventh gallery on our recommended route and you'll find it on the Second Floor.
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London Museum Docklands
Docklands at War: 1939–1945
How London survived and helped the war effort, from Dunkirk to D-Day
London Museum Docklands
New Port, New City: 1945 – present
How Docklands was reinvented for a new century – from rebuilding, dereliction and back to rebuilding
London Museum Docklands
No. 1 Warehouse: Intro gallery
Our building is a rare survivor of the old docks and its story is at the heart of this gallery
London Museum Docklands
Trade Expansion: 1600–1800
Meet the merchants, sailors and pirates who transformed London in the 1600s
London Museum Docklands
London, Sugar & Slavery: 1600 – present
Shining a light on London’s overlooked role in slavery
London Museum Docklands
City and River: 1800–1840
A city transformed by its river with new docks, new bridges and new tunnels
London Museum Docklands
Sailortown: 1840–1850
Experience the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian London in a recreation of a street in Wapping
London Museum Docklands
First Port of Empire: 1840–1880
When London was at the centre of the British empire and world trade
