Last Updated on July 16, 2025
Mudlarking London’s Past and Discovering the Secrets of the Thames
Secrets of the Thames, a new exhibition at the London Museum Docklands, features 350 mudlarked items found in the River Thames, providing an absorbing insight into London’s past by both satisfying and piquing visitors’ curiosity.
There can be few Londoners who have not at some point stood on the banks of the River Thames as it flows impassively past and wondered about how many other people through the city’s long history have done exactly the same thing, perhaps standing on the same spot, wondering what secrets the river might tell if it could speak. Although a speaking Thames remains a fantasy, a new year long mudlarking exhibition Secrets of the Thames at the London Museum (Docklands) sheds fascinating light not only on the historical objects that the river has hoarded and returned over the centuries, but also on the lives of the innumerable and diverse people who have lived along its banks.
Even ten years ago, this exhibition might have been deemed too niche to run in a major London museum. But unless you have been living under a rock, you will have seen the term mudlarking being mentioned with increasing frequency; just last month, an article about it appeared in the venerable Financial Times. As a quick primer, the Thames is a tidal river with a remarkably large fluctuation between its level at low and high tide (around seven metres!), and a bed made up of thick anaerobic mud which preserves items trapped in it. Twice a day every day, it seems as if London’s giant lungs are breathing the river’s water out into the English Channel and the about 6 hours later, sucking it back in. This means that there is a window of about two hours on either side of low tide when it is possible to walk on the exposed shingle, mud and sand of the foreshore by the water’s edge – and this is where you will find mudlarks.
The word was first coined in the early 1800s to describe people (often women and children) living in poverty who scavenged the foreshore at low tide for items of value that they could sell – often coal but also scrap metal from boat building or items dropped by careless boatmen loading and unloading cargo in the port of London. Contemporary accounts in Victorian books (some on display in the exhibition) described these wretched souls in fairly unflattering terms, and they were generally about as low on the social ladder as one could be. Of course, where there is money to be made, there will be enterprising “businessmen” – the ‘Shadwell Shams’, for example, were replica historical items skilfully crafted by two mudlarks, Billy and Charley, between 1856 and 1870. Initially, they sold real mudlarked artefacts to collectors, which proved to be so lucrative that they helped trade along by crafting and selling near-perfect forgeries. The items were so beautifully crafted that they fooled even the experts… for a while. But the pair’s illiteracy was eventually their undoing when they started making mistakes like using Arabic numerals on items that would at the time still have been marked with Roman numerals.
Today, mudlarks are no longer the poor and destitute, and rather than scavenging for items to sell, they are amateur archaeologists, searching the foreshore for artefacts to clean, catalogue, and research so as to increase their and our understanding of the city’s history. The Thames foreshore has been termed the world’s largest archaeological site, and to ensure that any significant historical finds are recorded and preserved, a permit must be obtained from the Port of London Authority (spoiler alert – there is a long waiting list!) before anyone may search the foreshore. The permit terms include a provision that all found items over 300 years old (plus newer but historically significant items) must be reported to the Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) at the London Museum where, if interesting enough, it can be recorded on the national database of the Portable Antiquities Scheme and potentially purchased by the Museum.
The year-long Secrets of the Thames exhibition, which opened last month at the London Museum Docklands, is the first full-scale exhibition dedicated entirely to objects found on the Thames foreshore. Curated by Kate Sumnall from the London Museum, the exhibition features 350 mudlarked objects, most of them found by modern London mudlarks. The main room of the exhibition features a pretty faithful reproduction of the rocky, muddy debris-strewn Thames foreshore, and the sharp-eyed can even spot replicas of actual finds amongst the debris. In another room, items are housed in drawers and cupboards that visitors can open and explore. In the final room, Luke Jerram’s Moon installation reminds visitors that none of this amateur archaeology would be possible without the tidal pull of our celestial satellite. But my favourite part of the exhibition is an area highlighting the contributions that modern mudlarks and the museum’s FLO Stuart make to preserving the city’s history. Alongside photos of some prominent mudlarks is a recreation of the FLO’s workspace where he identifies finds brought in by the public, and the banding wheel that visitors can spin to create an on-screen visualisation, from just a rim sherd, of the size and shape of the complete article.
The range of objects that make up the show is impressive – everything from neolithic flint arrowheads; delicate carved Roman intaglio; and a Celtic helmet and shield to objects as mundane as clay pipes, pins, wig curlers and leather shoes (interspersed with oddities like a carved jade phallus a set of 18th century false teeth, and a Wimbledon champion’s medals!). The shifting nature of the Thames foreshore and the constant redistribution of objects by the currents means that items from any period in London’s history can be washed up together in interesting juxtapositions – a used vape can easily wash up next to a piece of Roman pottery, or a modern 2p coin beside a Roman coin. Every trip to the foreshore is a surprise – there is never any way to predict what will be found – and the exhibition conveys this random coming together of historical periods very well.
There is an entire room dedicated to Roman artefacts, from the most minuscule of glass beads and fragments to delicately carved intaglio stones the size of a thumbnail to a substantial chunk of a terracotta amphora. There is the incredibly impressive Celtic Battersea Shield, which may predate the Romans and is beautifully decorated with brass scrolls and red enamel. But the more endearing aspect of the exhibition is the abundance of human stories, starting with the Victorian mudlarks that we meet at the start, continued with the nod to contemporary mudlarks, and reinforced by the fact that most of the items are not priceless ceremonial items but common everyday objects that each tell us a story about life in London over the centuries.
Clay pipes (one of the commonest finds on the foreshore) were sold pre-filled as single-use items because they were so cheap to produce (think 17th-century vapes!). They can be dated by the size of their bowls: as the price of tobacco dropped, pipe bowls got bigger. Pins are everywhere on the foreshore, reflecting both how many pins fashionable ladies needed to keep their outfits in place, as well as a story of frugality, as pins were expensive and had to be made to last. And leather shoes preserved in the anaerobic mud of the Thames for centuries tell us about the fashions of the day. Other finds tell us stories about trade deals (the arrival of the German Hanseatic League in London in the 12th century accounts for the presence of German stoneware on the foreshore); industries that flourished (the abundance of tin glaze pottery on the foreshore comes from the numerous potteries on the South Bank); and the dark history of the slave trade. In an especially poignant exhibit, a novelty pipe bowl depicting a man’s head with exaggerated African features is displayed alongside a cowrie shell and a photo showing how the two objects were found side by side on the foreshore. Cowrie shells native to the Maldives have long been used as currency in many parts of the world, but from as early as the 17th century, they started being used by European traders as currency to buy slaves in West Africa who were then trafficked to plantations in the Caribbean.
Secrets of the Thames also features a piece by artist and mudlark Billie Bond called Finder Keepers. It consists of three figurines modelled on actual mudlarks in various poses of searching and discovery, but the head of each figure has been replaced by a depiction of a significant object that they have found on the foreshore. Looking out for these three objects elsewhere in the exhibition is bound to keep younger visitors engaged and entertained. There is also a thought-provoking sculpture by Kabir Hussein of a rental bike encased in what looks like dried mud, ostensibly lifted from the river by a future mudlark. The piece challenges visitors to imagine what items we are discarding today that may be found in centuries to come, and what these objects will reveal about us. And like London’s very own gossip columnist, the Thames will continue to hoard secrets to reveal to future generations.
Secrets of the Thames does an excellent job of curating the objects on display into a cohesive exhibition along thematic rather than purely chronological lines. Other than the obvious pleasure of seeing ancient items that have been hidden (almost literally) beneath our feet for centuries, it also invites you to think about London’s past, the people who have lived here, the ways we have used the river, and the city’s future. Although not aimed at children, there is enough to keep youngsters occupied and engaged – and don’t forget to pop into the shop afterwards, where there is a good range of gifts and some excellent books on mudlarking written by the London “mudderati” like Jason Sandy and Lara Maiklem. Secrets of the Thames runs until 1 March 2026 (£16 for adults, £13.50 for 12-18 year olds and under 12s go free. The closest stations are West India Quay DLR or Canary Wharf Tube.
Secrets of the Thames
London Museum Docklands
No. 1 Warehouse
West India Quay
London
E14 4AL
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