Beneath a church just steps from the Tower of London lies a free museum filled with artifacts spanning 2,000 years of London history. The museum, located in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower Church on Byward Street, is a short walk from Tower Hill Underground station.
Hidden gem near a top attraction
Jack Chesher, a TikTok creator with nearly 250,000 followers who highlights lesser-known London sites, visited the museum. In his video, he said: "Not many people know that, literally minutes from the Tower of London, is an amazing underground museum, and it's totally free. This is one of the things I always recommend people to go and do whilst visiting London."
The church was founded in 675 AD. Chesher noted: "The church nave itself is wonderful and worth a look around. But if you go down these stairs, you'll find yourself in the old church crypt. Down here you realise that London really is a city built on a city built on a city."
Roman and Saxon treasures
Among the exhibits is a section of tessellated flooring from a Roman villa and a Roman gravestone found nearby, as well as a model of Roman-era London from the 1960s. The crypt also contains vaults once used to hold bodies, now serving as a mini chapel. According to Chesher, "Most of these layers of archaeology and history were revealed during the Blitz. The church was gutted by incendiary bombs and restored after the war."
The church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 but required extensive rebuilding after World War II bombing. The church's website describes the museum as leading visitors "on a fascinating journey through time, charting the history of the church, its people, and the City of London." It is housed in part of the original Saxon church and includes a Roman tessellated floor from a late second-century domestic house, a collection of Roman and Saxon artifacts, church plate, and ancient registers dating back to the 16th century.
Other notable artifacts
Additional items on display include the crow's nest from the Quest, the ship used by Sir Ernest Shackleton on his third and final Antarctic voyage in 1921. The church holds a 4.6 rating on Tripadvisor, with many visitors praising the museum.
One reviewer from 2014 wrote: "We found this little church by accident after visiting the Tower of London. It is very close. The church is the oldest in London and has many artefacts with good explanations of them. The crypt museum (down steps) is very interesting with many different rooms. It contains, amongst other things, a Knights Templar altar, ancient registers showing the baptism of William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania) and John Adams (sixth president of the USA), a Roman mosaic floor, an ancient chapel."
Another visitor commented: "Well this was a pleasant surprise and completely on the spur of the moment. ... The crypt area underneath is amazing with so many artefacts etc to view and see. We all spent nearly an hour wandering about and taking in the history of this place. If you have never been before it is certainly worth a visit and its free to enter although there is a box to donate what you would like."
