Goldsmiths' Gallery will bring the Cheapside Hoard to new audiences at London Museum from 28 November
Today, the London Museum has announced that it will open its doors in Smithfield’s General Market on Saturday 28 November 2026. This marks the museum’s 50th anniversary, a new chapter for the world’s largest city museum, and the creation of the new Goldsmiths’ Gallery, which will place the Company's collection at the heart of one of the most significant new cultural venues in a generation.
Alongside rare objects from the Goldsmiths' Company collection, the Goldsmiths’ Gallery will house the Cheapside Hoard – one of the most extraordinary collections of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery ever discovered. The gallery will offer hundreds of thousands of new visitors each year a direct encounter with the craft and creativity that the Company has championed since 1327.
Celebrating the Company’s philanthropic roots – which are documented in our earliest surviving book of minutes – in 2017, the Goldsmiths’ Foundation (formerly the Goldsmiths’ Company Charity) pledged £10million towards the creation of the new London Museum. One of the largest single gifts to the project, the donation reflects the Company's long-held belief that great craft belongs in public view, and that the stories behind the objects people love deserve to be told at scale.
The opening will mark a defining moment in the city's cultural landscape. London Museum in Smithfield, Goldsmiths' Hall in Foster Lane, and Goldsmiths' Centre in Clerkenwell together form a remarkable cluster of craft, heritage, and creativity within walking distance of one another – connecting makers, collectors, and curious visitors across one of the world's most historically significant neighbourhoods.
As the Goldsmiths' Company prepares to celebrate 700 years of craft, standards, and civic generosity through a year-long national programme in 2027, the Goldsmiths’ Gallery will provide a permanent presence at the heart of that celebration, and a lasting legacy of the anniversary for decades to come.
“Behind every object in the Goldsmiths’ Gallery is a human hand – the skill, judgement, and creative life of a maker. Championing that craft has been the Goldsmiths’ Company’s purpose since 1327. We hope every visitor who encounters the Cheapside Hoard, or one of our own extraordinary objects in the new London Museum, leaves with a sense of wonder – at how it was made, who made it, and what it takes to make something that beautiful. As the Company approaches its 700th anniversary, the new gallery will share that wonder with the world.”
“The Goldsmiths’ Foundation exists to put creativity and craft within everyone’s reach. Our £10 million gift to the London Museum is one of the most direct expressions of that commitment we have ever made – ensuring that the Cheapside Hoard and the finest of our collection will no longer be seen by the few, but encountered by hundreds of thousands of people every year. We hope the Goldsmiths’ Gallery will bring visitors into direct contact with that craft and inspire a new generation to take it up themselves.”