Future Cities Forum to hold November 'Cultural Cities' as London Museum set to open

Image: view from Holborn Viaduct to Smithfield Market's General Market Building which will be the first element of the new London Museum to be opened this November after a major transformation. A City of London griffin, 'with the head of an eagle and body of a lion' according to the London Museum, stands guard - courtesy Future Cities Forum

Future Cities Forum is holding another of its 'Cultural Cities' discussion events in Smithfield, London, around the opening of the new London Museum this November. Contributors will be debating how to ensure the future sustainability of cultural districts in cities, while discussing the considerable investment, planning and design involved in the creation of the new museum.

In June 2025, Sharon Ament, Director of the London Museum told Future Cities Forum at its 'Cultural Cities' event hosted in the City of London by the Barbican Centre:

''We didn't set out to create a new model of a museum but it has happened within the response to it. The shape of it has been influenced by the different buildings of the site, the original Smithfield Market. We had to adjust ourselves to it and exploit the physical nature of those buildings. It has nine entrances with big public spaces that are not overwhelming, enabling the public to come in and engage and buy something.

'This is in our ground floor gallery called 'Our time', which covers one hundred years and this is where Londoners can come together. Time is our intellectual organising principle. There is a basement cold store, open trading floors, slopes for horse and cart deliveries and our gallery names like deep time, past time, future imagined time etc will correspond to these physical layers. In terms of presentation, it is something that goes beyond co-curation and diminishes the barriers in a museum. It does away with the previous ideas of owning intellectual content with a new democratisation of it. That's different from the kind of communication you might find on social media. It is about facilitating deep insight and expertise from people and will help London think about itself. You do not need to be a curator to do that.

'In terms of being inclusive, the place itself and the location serves that. It is sited on a transport hub and therefore very accessible. It was built for market staff to come and go really quickly, designed like that by the Victorians originally on sustainability terms. We now need to think how we heat and cool it. There are passive heating systems put in by the Victorians, but we are going to be more demanding of our visitors than that. We are going to let people know if it is a jumper or t-shirt day, asking them to be more active, including their comfort levels.'

The Museums Association reported recently:

'One of the most ambitious capital museum developments of the decade has finally set an opening date. Eleven years after the London Museum – then known as the Museum of London – first announced that it was moving to the Smithfield Market building complex in Farringdon, the institution has revealed that it will reopen in its new home on 28 November.

'The long-awaited opening comes after a complex construction project to transform the near-derelict market buildings into a modern museum space that hopes to welcome more than two million visitors a year.

'The redevelopment cost a total of £437m, raised through a mix of public funding and philanthropic donations. Key funders include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Goldsmiths Foundation and the Linbury Trust.

'The 1880s general market building is a landmark of Victorian architecture, featuring 16 wrought iron columns supporting a superstructure that covers a space the size of Oxford Circus.

The 1960s poultry market building has one of the largest clear spanning concrete dome roofs in Europe. This part of the museum is not due to reopen until 2028.

Both buildings have been brought up to date by the architectural team of Stanton Williams and Asif Khan, collaborating closely with conservation firm Julian Harrap Architects.

“These buildings were nearly lost, the general market was very derelict and in very poor condition,” said Lyall Thow of Julian Harrap Architects. “So it's quite special that they're going to be preserved for the future and create a wonderful home for London Museum.”

“It's certainly one of the biggest projects of cultural reimagining in Europe at the moment, and is an extraordinary commission,” said Paul Williams, the founder of Stanton Williams.

Image: view of construction work in progress on the General Market building element of the new London Museum in Farringdon. looking south - courtesy Stanton Williams