Little could archivists of a small piece of Roman mosaic have imagined the museum growing into the urban and social history centre visitors see today. They now receive over a million visitors to their museums each year.

The focus of the original Guildhall Museum, founded in 1826, was on archaeology. Its first acquisition was a fragment of Roman mosaic from Tower Street in the City of London.

The London Museum, established in 1912, had wider interests and collected modern objects, paintings, and costumes. 

Following the Second World War the museums amalgamated to form the Museum of London.

Doors to the current site opened in 1976. They have become a centre of social and urban history, and continue to maintain their archaeological interests.

They unveiled a second site in 2003, the Museum of London Docklands, housed in a Grade I listed warehouse at Canary Wharf, not far from the river Thames.