In Cheapside > City of London, Heritage, Gallery > City of London Heritage Gallery

City of London Heritage Gallery

The City of London has a working record of its history stretching back nearly one thousand years, enjoy a rare opportunity to view treasures held in trust for the nation. The spring- summer display looks at London at times of momentous events overseas.

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In the 1770s the City of London, under the Lord Mayor John Wilkes, argued with the British Government of the day on behalf of the American colonists who were protesting against taxation without representation.  Leading colonists wrote asking the City to intercede on their behalf and avert war. The letters are signed by  Founding Fathers including John Hancock, John Jay and Isaac Roosevelt. 

For the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, the Memorial Book for St Matthew’s Church in Brixton, south London, is displayed with pages open to tell us about three young men from the area who died in the Battle and were remembered afterwards by their own London community in a very beautiful book. 

The final display looks at the earliest surviving archives of London Bridge, London’s oldest bridge, from the time of building the medieval bridge in 1176. This bridge became a great commercial success for the London and provides the basis of the Bridge House Trust today.