Housed inside an old Georgian sugar warehouse, the Museum of London Docklands serves as a salutary reminder of the power and ambition of the Port of London. It once fuelled the capital, the country and the Empire, but is now dwarfed by the modern powerhouses of multinational banks and insurers enshrined in their towers of glass and steel.
The stretch of restaurants and bars sitting on the cobbled street alongside the museum provides welcome relief from the hulking monstrosities surrounding them. This exhibition, however, delves into a history that is much older than the development of the docks. It explains the intimate relationship of London with the public spectacle of gruesome execution, which served for centuries as a constant reminder of the authority and power of the state.
