Local Museums

There are plenty of museums illustrating our local history, all free of entry at the moment, and all with both standing collections and special exhibitions, as well as special events and activities, also opportunities for volunteering. In the borough we have Hackney Museum; and the Geffrye Museum, which specialises in house interiors over the ages, as well as having a herb garden, and cafe. Sutton House, National Trust is a beautifully preserved Tudor mansion, built by Sir Ralph Sadleir in 1535, with interesting later additions, that evokes many periods of Hackney’s past.

Adjacent boroughs house the Bruce Castle Museum and park, LB Haringey; Islington Museum is in Finsbury Library. The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, is run by the Victoria and Albert Museum. You will have to travel to Walthamstow to see a Roman sarcophagus found in Clapton, that is now in the Vestry House Museum.

The Museum of London has displays from all periods of London’s History; the Museum in Docklands has much of interest to East London. Finds from archaeological excavations across London, including Hackney, can be accessed online, or, viewed, by appointment, at the Museum’s London Archaeological Archives and Research Centre, based in Eagle Wharf Road, N1.

Discover more about Further Reading > or go back to Local History Societies