1 exhibition, 15 displays, 87 events, 160,000 visitors.
One season.
From May 2017 to April 2018, the Museum of London hosted over a hundred exhibitions, events, festivals and workshops exploring urban living.
Why City Now City Future?
We live on an urban earth. More than half of the people on the planet live in urban areas. By 2050, it’s predicted that two-thirds of all humans will be city-dwellers. City Now City Future explored how we live in cities today, what cities might be like in the future, and how we can all be part of making our cities better.
Keep in touch to learn what we’re planning as we move towards the new Museum of London in West Smithfield.
Sponsored by:
Supported by:
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City Now
What does city living look like today? We featured urban communities from all around the world, examining their strategies for dealing with challenges from housing to loneliness. We also ran salons, workshops and talks that asked Londoners how they saw their city, and what they’d like to change.
Every year 9% of London’s population arrives while 7% leaves
City Past
From recycling to alternative currency: what we can learn about urban living from past Londoners. We scoured our collections to find out how people have adapted to the city’s challenges through history and how we can use that knowledge today.
More than 1 in 3 of London’s population was born outside the UK
City Future
Driverless cars, or flooded streets? Citizen democracy, or surveillance capitalism? Utopia? Or uncertainty? These exhibitions and events explored the future of London and cities around the world, and asked what we can do to prepare for it. See it all, from science-fiction fantasies to our future citizens festival.
People in their twenties with no children are by far the largest group of newcomers to come to London every year
Changing the city
We didn’t just want to talk about making the city better: we wanted to do it. We partnered with initiatives across London to improve air quality, connect neighbourhoods, and reduce food waste. You can still take part in City Now City Future: just use these do-it-yourself resources and start changing the city.
Some tower blocks in London have community-owned solar panels on their roofs to harvest solar power
