London Museum reveals Roman exhibition for rediscovered underground vaults

A network of rediscovered vaults beneath Smithfield will become the setting for a free exhibition about the earliest Londoners. London Museum has announced Londinium: the making of a Roman city for spring 2027, adding another chapter to the opening of its new home this November.

The announcement, published on 5 October, promises objects from the Bloomberg Collection alongside projections and spatial sound. Created with experience-design agency Journey, the exhibition will concentrate on the first 50 years of Roman London and the people who lived, worked and traded there.

A hidden space with a new purpose

The vaults were rediscovered in 2019 when builders broke through a wall during work on the Victorian General Market. The museum says the underground network covers around 800 square metres and is thought to have served the market and nearby railway as storage. It will now be opened to visitors as an exhibition setting.

Among the announced objects are Roman writing tablets, an infant’s feeding bottle, a coin from Nero’s reign and ancient cockroach eggs found in a bakery oven. That combination moves the story beyond emperors and military campaigns. It points towards work, family life, food and the ordinary difficulties of living in a growing settlement.

Where the discoveries came from

The museum’s earlier collection announcement explains that more than 14,000 Roman artefacts were uncovered by Museum of London Archaeology during construction of Bloomberg’s European headquarters between 2012 and 2014. The collection was gifted to London Museum in 2025, alongside a £20 million contribution from Bloomberg Philanthropies towards the museum’s transformation.

The finds include a major group of Roman writing tablets, with the earliest surviving written reference to London among them. Writing is particularly valuable because it can bring individual voices into view: the practical business of recording information leaves a different kind of evidence from a monumental building or a ceremonial object.

Some of the material is already accessible elsewhere. The Roman temple and around 600 artefacts have been displayed at London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE since 2017, and the museum says they will remain there. The new exhibition therefore expands the public story of the collection; it does not mean that every object is being removed from its existing location.

Two dates to put in the diary

The museum’s confirmed opening announcement sets 28 November 2026 for the new free permanent galleries in Smithfield’s General Market. The separate Londinium exhibition follows in spring 2027. Visitors planning a November trip should keep that distinction in mind: the museum opening and the vaults exhibition are different stages of the project.

The broader development restores the Victorian market and brings together spaces called Real Time, Our Time and Past Time. Confirmed collection highlights range from the Lord Mayor’s Coach and the Whitechapel Fatberg to Anna Pavlova’s Dying Swan dress and Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger-strike medal. A programme called London Tastes will be co-curated by Ruby Tandoh and Jonathan Nunn.

The adjacent Poultry Market is planned to open in 2028, adding temporary exhibition spaces, a learning centre and collection storage. The project has therefore been designed to grow in phases, with the first public opening followed by further ways to use the historic buildings.

Why the everyday objects matter

For us, the most intriguing aspect is the scale of the human stories. A feeding bottle invites questions about caring for a child; a written record suggests someone trying to organise a working day. These are useful entry points for visitors who may not arrive with a detailed knowledge of Roman history. They make it possible to connect a distant period with recognisable needs and routines.

The immersive presentation will be worth assessing when it opens. Sound and projection can help visitors imagine a place, but the strongest museum experiences keep the distinction between an original object and an interpretation clear. The image accompanying this article is an official design visualisation of the proposed exhibition, rather than a photograph of a gallery already open to the public.

Follow London Museum on Instagram or its official X account for opening updates. For now, the immediate date is 28 November, with the vaults providing a separate reason to return once their spring exhibition is ready.