£20 Million Revamp for Museum of London - A Mantua Made for Three?

Next week following three years' extensive and costly revamp of the Museum of London, five new galleries will be unveiled. More than 7,000 objects, spanning the 344 years since the Great Fire in 1666, will go on show alongside interactive exhibits and film, in order to transport visitors through London’s tumultuous history, rich with drama, triumph and near disaster. Amongst the exhibits you will be able to see the Fanshawe Dress of 1752 - a Spitalfields silk court mantua. Named after its wearer, Anne Fanshawe the daughter of a wealthy merchant and Master of the Brewers' Company who was also Lord Mayor from 1752-1753, the dress was tailored from cloth which would have been 6 months in the weaving with its intricate design of barley and hops - a hommage to her father's trade.

Newly recreated for the opening are Georgian and Victorian pleasure gardens peopled with mannequins in original costumes.