The Museum of London is set to unveil five new galleries which cost £20 million to complete. Reporters LAURENCE ETTRIDGE and KELLY SMALE visited the galleries to see the changes to London over the past 350 years.

THE new Galleries of Modern London are home to more than 7,000 objects telling the stories of Londoners from the Great Fire of London in 1666 to the present day.

On May 28 they will be open to the public offering new items on display as well as old favourites such as the Lord Mayor’s State Coach.

The museum received a £11.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the rest of the cash came from numerous individuals and foundations.

Head of communications, Antony Robbins, said: “It had been a long term ambition of ours to tell the story of London up until the present day and the modern story now has a home.”

Visitors can find out information about the boroughs they live in through an interactive touch screen, which displays pictures and facts from the past to the present.

Lewisham was a borough which grew around ancient villages and during the 20th century the Lewisham street market was established.

People from Bexley will be interested to find out that until the 19th century it was made up of small, rural villages lining the road to Canterbury. Its name also means “clearing in the box wood”.

Bromley covers more land than any other London borough but its population of 215,900 people accounts for less than three per cent of the entire city.

Visitors can enjoy The Victorian Walk exhibition, which is a recreation of London’s Victorian streets including a row of shops, a pub and barbers.

An attraction not to be missed is the contemporary artwork by The Light Surgeons called LDN24.

The 24 minute film follows 24-hours in the life of London with hundreds of filmed sequences from across the capital including Greenwich’s O2.

The screen is surrounded by an elliptical chandelier which stretches for 48 metres around the Sackler Hall and is made up of 1,152 hanging tubes and 46,080 LED lights.

More than 200 statistics flow around the LED ellipse producing up-to-date information from tidal patterns to temperatures, flight arrivals and Twitter updates.

An exhibition highlighting the changing attitudes of race includes an orange ribbon from the Stephen Lawrence Trust.

The 18-year-old was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths at a bus stop in Eltham on April 22, 1993.

Director of the museum, Professor Jack Lohman, said: “The new Galleries of Modern London breathe new life into the Museum, bringing together more than 7,000 objects from vehicles, costume, jewellery and paintings.

“They provide a home for the story of London – celebrating the unique spirit and energy of the city ahead of the 2012 Olympics.”

He added: “It is thrilling to see this ambitious and complex project realised at last, transforming the Museum and placing it at the heart of the city it celebrates.”

The Museum is open from 10am until 6pm and is free for everyone.

For more information, visit museumoflondon.org.uk/modernlondons