The UK’s First Major Mudlarking Exhibition – Secrets of the Themes: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures
The UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to mudlarking opened at London Museum Docklands this April. ‘Secrets of the Themes: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures’ features over 350 historical objects found in the river bed.
@urbanadventurerldn [BLOG POST IN BIO] The UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to mudlarking has opened at London Museum Docklands @London Museum ‘𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙨: 𝙈𝙪𝙙𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙨 𝙇𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨’ is featuring over 350 historical objects found in the river bed ⚔️🛡️🏺 📍 London Museum Docklands | No 1, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, London E14 4AL 📆 Until 1st March 2026 🕰️ 10am – 5pm daily | Last entry 3:45pm 🎟️ Tickets from £16 #mudlarking #mudlarkinglondon #historyoflondon #londonhistory #historytok #museumoflondon #historytime #CapCut
♬ Now We Are Free – Lisa Gerrard & Gavin Greenaway & The Lyndhurst Orchestra
What is Mudlarking?
Photo: Urban Adventurer
River Themes was one of the world’s largest ports in the 18th and 19th century. Traderships and vessels came and go every day loaded with goods. Sometimes some of those goods and objects ended up in the river accidentally (or not) alongside with lots of other objects people dropped in the water during the centuries.
Mudlarks are people who go to the riverbank during low tide to find those long lost artefacts. Their findings often include ancient coins, objects from the Roman or the Viking era. Some rare objects even date back to the Iron Age.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The earliest mudlarks were recorded in the 18th century. Mudlarking, however, was very different back then. It wasn’t a hobby at all. Instead, it was a form of income to the poor. Most often children – especially boys – and sometimes women were searching for anything in the mud they could sell. It could have been coal, rope – if in good condition – , chopper nails or iron.
Mudlarks were, in fact, the lowest members of the society.
“Sometimes we wade in the mud to the ankle, at other times to the knee…we seek with our hands and feet.”– Anonymous mudlark, aged 13, 1860.
Secrets of the Themes: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Modern mudlarks are searching for historical artefacts. Little pieces of history that – with the help of museum experts – can help understanding our past.
‘Secrets of the Themes: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures’ exhibition has been created with active participation of mudlarks. As a result, the exhibition is not just about the historical pieces they’re digging up, but is also telling the mudlarks’ personal stories: how they work, how they catalogue their findings and how museum experts help them curating their objects.
There are over 350 objects on display from intimate pieces, such as false teeth, prosthetic eyes or shoes, to historical relics dropped in the water centuries ago.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
To make the exhibition a bit more interactive, the museum also created a fake mini riverbank scattered with mudlarked objects for visitors to explore.
Exhibition Highlights
Viking drinking horn and battle axe
Photo: Urban Adventurer
This drinking horn was used by Vikings around 700 – 900 AD. Drinking horns were central a Viking’s life and even afterlife.
This Viking battle axe is from 800 – 1,000 AD and was probably used during battles with the Saxons to seize their wealth and enslave their people.
The Waterloo helmet
Photo: Urban Adventurer
This extremely rare find is an Iron Age helmet, dating back to 150 – 50 BCE.
It was found by workers in 1868 near Waterloo Bridge (that’s why the name).
This is the only one Iron Age helmet found in Southern England and the only one with horns ever found in Europe! It’s made of bronze with scrolling decoration and red enamel around the cap.
The Battersea shield
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Highly decorated with hammered and engraved symbolic patterns (including 27 red glass studs), this shield was found by a labourer in 1857.
Similarly to the Waterloo helmet, this shield is from the Iron Age, from around 350 – 50 BCE.
Flint tools from the Neolithic to Bronze Age
Photo: Urban Adventurer
These tools made of flint are from the 3,500 – 2,000 BCE. Hundreds of axe heads, arrowheads, daggers and cutting knives like these have been found in the river during the decades.
Daggers and knives
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Mudlarks sometimes find weapons, such as knives, daggers and swords. These are from the 15th and 17th centuries.
Shoes saved by the mud
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These robust marching shoes were used by soldiers around 43 BC, when the Romans invaded Britain. Two of the soles have iron hobnails which made them last very long.
The third sole was originally a leather sandal, similar to flip flops. The sandal has a hole for the strap (the strap is missing) to hold it onto the foot.
Luke Jerram: Museum of the Moon
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Your exhibition journey ends with famous artist, Luke Jerram’s giant illuminated Moon installation: ‘Museum of the Moon’.
It is the Moon that makes mudlarking possible by causing tides and making the water constantly rise and fall.
“We are lucky in London to have this amazing tidal river environment that has preserved so much of our past. Thanks to the dedication and expertise of today’s mudlarks, we are constantly uncovering new objects that inform our understanding of history.” – says London Museum curator, Kate Sumnall.
The Mudlark Pub
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Did you know that London has a mudlark pub? The Mudlark Pub is opened in the 18th century next to London’s oldest fruit and vegetable market, Borough Market.
Over the centuries the pub was a popular spot for market traders to eat, drink and socialise after a long day at work.
It’s just a 10-minutes walk from the best mudlark places and there are treasures and historical artefacts displayed on the walls to tell the story of mudlarking.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Today the pub is part of the Nicholson’s Pub and there’s no better place for mudlarks to drink to their success (or lack of) or shoppers to dine in with friends.
Want to Become a Mudlark? You Need Permit and Must Report Your Finds
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Today, mudlarking is incredibly popular, however, if you want to search for treasures in the foreshore, you need permit.
You must hold a permit from Port of London Authority. The permit includes metal detecting, ‘beachbombing’, scraping and digging (this basically means that you’re not allowed to flip a single stone without permit).
The permit allows you to search the tidal Thames foreshore from Teddington to the Thames barrier.
At the moment there are 4,000 permits are live. However, new applicants are currently suspended due to the waiting list exceeding 10,000. The application will be reopened in due course. Keep an eye on Port of London Authority’s website.
Practical Info – Secrets of the Themes: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Address
London Museum Docklands | No 1, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, London E14 4AL
Opening Times
Until 1st March 2026
10am – 5pm daily | Last entry 3:45pm
Tickets
Tickets from £16 | You can book on London Museum Docklands’ official website
Wheelchair Accessibility
The exhibition is wheelchair accessible
Ready for your next adventure? New exhibition opened at the National Maritime Museum, dedicated to Pirates. ‘Pirates’ exhibition is exploring fiction and reality and why pirates still fascinate us today. You will learn more about the most notorious pirates, such as Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach, Captain William Kidd, and Bartholomew Roberts while marvelling at real artefacts.