- Ethan Doyle White
- Last Checked and/or Updated 6 April 2025
- Reviews, Greater London
Today, those who scour the foreshore looking for treasures from the past are called mudlarks. Theirs is a hobby with a long pedigree but one that has seen much change over the years. What once was a free for all is now a far more regulated affair. Anyone wanting to pick up objects from the river bank is required to have a license from the Port of London Authority and, if their discoveries are old enough, to report them to the appropriate Finds Liaison Officer for recording in the Portable Antiquities Scheme. While this means that it is harder to become a mudlarker than it used to be, it also means that we now have better reporting of foreshore finds than ever before.
In what is being presented as the first ever major exhibit on the topic, the efforts of these artefact hunters are being showcased in ‘Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s Lost Treasures’, a new temporary exhibition running at the London Museum Docklands in Canary Wharf, East London from 4th April 2025 to 1st March 2026. Split across four main rooms, the exhibition showcases around 350 objects recovered from the Thames foreshore, covering time periods from the Stone Age right through to the twenty-first century. In addition, the material is accompanied by several modern artworks and displays giving insight into the lives and passions of today’s mudlarks themselves.
What to Expect
The exhibition starts off with a brief history of mudlarking, highlighting how the early mudlarks of the 19th century were motivated not by archaeological interest but by a simple desire to earn a living. For these pioneers, mudlarking was all about finding and selling objects of value – including objects potentially stolen from passing trade ships. Several historic paintings and prints help give a visual impression of the busy, polluted waterway along which 19th-century mudlarks would have lived and worked.
Shifting focus into the main room, the exhibition arranges its material in a largely thematic fashion. We have display cases on objects relating to food, to religion, to criminal activity – there is even a display collating various penis-themed artefacts. Across these displays we find all manner of material, from a late medieval eel spear to the sawn-off barrel of a shotgun, and from a Neolithic polished axe to a rune-engraved Anglo-Saxon pin head.
By far the most impressive displays are the Battersea Shield and the Waterloo Helmet, two Iron Age marvels on loan from the British Museum. These are ornate, high-status items, and their deposition in the Thames was surely no accident. Instead, archaeologists believe that they were probably placed into the river as part of a ritual act – although the exact function of this ceremony will probably always elude us. Were they offerings to a river deity? Or objects marking the death of a beloved warrior? Ritual interactions with the Thames were not restricted to prehistory, of course. Video footage of the Hindu teacher Yogiji Maharaj blessing the Thames on his visit to London in 1970 reminds us of the ongoing place of the river for various religious communities.
One of the most engaging aspects of the exhibit is the inclusion of objects with highly traceable histories. One such example is the series of letter prints used in the early 20th century by the Doves Press, a company based in Hammersmith, West London. Following a dispute between the company’s founders, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker, the former dumped most of the typeface into the Thames in 1916, ensuring that it would not fall into Walker’s hands. Years later, many of the tiny individual metal letters making up the typeface were recovered by Lukasz Orlinski. Displayed here, they testify to the bitter breakdown of an Edwardian friendship.
A similarly in-depth story can be told by the medals belonging to the tennis player Peter Fleming, received for his role playing doubles at the Wimbledon Championships between 1978 and 2000. These were stolen in a burglary but subsequently found along the Thames by mudlarker Kamil Zawistowski, having presumably been dumped into the river by the thieves. Examples like these really succeed in telling a detailed narrative, something that sadly is just not possible for most of the objects recovered from the Thames.
Surely recognising that the Romans are usually a big draw for visitors, the exhibition includes various objects dating from the Romano-British period. The Roman occupation of Britain was famously the era of Londinium, the urban settlement that was the forerunner of today’s City of London – and which left behind archaeological traces including the city wall, amphitheatre, and Temple of Mithras, all of which can still be visited and enjoyed.
One of the first objects that confronts visitors to ‘Secrets of the Thames’ is a replica of the head of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the original being an artefact recovered from the mud amid 19th-century dredging efforts. Later in the exhibition, a whole hallway is given over to a gallery of Romano-British artefacts. Here we have pottery sherds, statuettes of deities, and leather shoes partially preserved in the waterlogged conditions of the river for nearly two thousand years. Centre stage is given to an amphora or storage jar that would have been made in Baetica, Spain, and used to transport olive oil to Britain. The letters “MAR” are scratched into the surface, potentially referencing the name of the workshop at which the amphora was created. Perhaps the amphora fell off a ship as it sailed along the Thames into Londinium? Or was it cast into the river after being broken, and thus left useless for its owner?
Accompanying the varied archaeological displays are a selection of artworks, many purpose-made for this exhibition, which actively engage with the theme of mudlarking. Thus, we find Amy-Leigh Bird’s “Ancient Ruins,” a ball of animal bones recovered from the foreshore, Billie Bond’s “Finders Keepers,” a set of sculptural portraits of certain mudlarks themselves, and Kabir Hussain’s “Velocipede,” an attempt at portraying what a modern-day London hire-bike might look like if discovered by mudlarks a thousand years from now.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, focus shifts to the mudlarks themselves, with one room set up to look like the office of a Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), one of the individuals to whom mudlarks must report their finds. On the wall are photographs of five mudlarks, surrounded by artefacts hoarded away in their homes, as well as video footage of two being interviewed about their passion. This footage in particular helps offer insight into why mudlarks love this hobby, and especially the ways in which they are driven by an addictive fascination for the hidden stories of historic objects.
Closing the exhibition is a room dominated by another artwork, Luke Jerram’s giant luminous moon – a reminder of the lunar influence on the Thames’ shifting tides, which all mudlarks must navigate for their own safety. Sounds recorded at the river itself play out in the background, offering a tranquil sensory experience, albeit one without a great deal of relevance to London archaeology itself.
Visiting 'Secrets of the Thames'
‘Secrets of the Thames’ is clearly aimed at a broad audience and offers an engaging introduction to mudlarking and the heritage of the Thames. Those already familiar with these topics will probably not encounter a great deal that is wholly new to them – especially as the prize displays are normally to be found in the British Museum – but there are nevertheless many artefacts here that are not usually on public display. In this, there should be something of potential interest to any Londoner with a love for the city’s past. Meanwhile, visitors from outside London will surely learn something of the complexity and richness of the city’s history, and of the important role that these passionate hobbyists, the mudlarks, have played in revealing its past.
Exhibition tickets start at £16 and work out cheaper if purchased online beforehand. A visit to the exhibition will probably last in the region of one hour to an hour and a half. The rest of the London Museum Docklands is free to visit and well worth your time, especially while the main London Museum, which was located in the City, is closed for its relocation.
Read More About Mudlarking & the Thames River
- Mudlarks: Treasures from the Thames by Jason Sandy, Silver Gravity 2024 – available on Amazon
- A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season by Lara Maiklem, Bloosmbury Circus 2024, available on Amazon
- Mudlark’d: Hidden Histories from the River Thames by Malcolm Russel 2022, Princeton University Press – available on Amazon
- Thames Mudlarking: Searching for London’s Lost Treasures by Jason Sandy and Nick Stevens 2021, Shire Publications 2021 – available on Amazon
- Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem, Bloomsbury Publishing 2020 – available on Amazon
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London Museum Docklands
Opened in 2003, the Museum of London Docklands occupies a Grade-I listed 19th century warehouse on the Isle of Dogs. The location is appropriate, for the museum explores the history of the commerce that dominated this area of London, whether that be in sugar, tea, or enslaved human beings. Focusing on the 17th century onward, exhibits document how Britain’s maritime prowess led to it becoming the world’s dominant superpower, as well as the impact that this had on the lives of people in London and the rest of the world.
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