Museum of London

It's a little odd that it has taken so long for us to get round to visiting this fascinating collection, though this might perhaps be put down to the museum's proximity to the Barbican − a place I used to be able to find only when I wasn't trying.

The first gallery, London before London, takes you back to the time when the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine and proto-cockneys shared the valley with bears, lions, aurocks, mammoth and rhino.

The Roman gallery features this model of Londinium's unlikely-looking brick Basilica, said to be the largest civil structure north of the Alps at the time of its construction. There are also several IKEA-style mock-ups of Romano-British living spaces.

V loved this newspaper cartoon showing the surge of humanity that flowed towards Hyde Park and the Great Exhibition in 1851. The wax dummy of old buggergrips above used to proudly advertise the skill and modishness of a Victorian barber.