London, England, UK - Museum of London

This is the place to get a grip on London’s 2,000 year old history. With Europe’s largest archaeological archive to draw on, the Guildhall Museum’s City antiquities, costumes from earlier London Museum and a host of other cultural objects, this is one of the most substantial urban history collections in the world. Spend time here early on and you will get a lot more out of the rest of your time in the capital.

Set into London Wall, the street that marks the West Gate of Londinium’s Roman fort, the museum is in the middle of redeveloping its post -1666 exhibitions - the history of "modern" London. Four major galleries tell the story from 450,000 BC to the early Stuart period, including a special exhibition on the Great Fire of 1666.

The Thames has always played a central role to people who lived in its valley. The first gallery, "London before London", includes more than 300 objects dredged from its depth - including bronze and iron swords laid there to appease the water gods.

The Romans were the first to build a city where London stands today. Between AD 50 and AD 410 they made Londinium the hub of Britannia, a port that received goods from across the world. Reconstructed rooms and models show how people lived and worked.

Finally, we travel from Anglo-Saxon settlements in the 5th century, through Viking raids and the Norman Conquest of 1066, to the dramatic results of Henry Veii’s "Dissolution of the Monasteries". Among a host of fascinating objects, some shoes from the 1380s with ridiculously pointed toes show high fashion today has nothing on the past.

If you have time another day, make a trip to the museum’s Docklands outpost This charts the stories of the river, ports and communities that grew around them, from the arrival of the Romans to the rise of Canary Wharf.

For more details about the Museum
http://www.guidedtourlondon.com/britishmuseum.html - This link has more details about the British Museum.