London Museum Docklands – The Big Dig

Ever wondered what treasures lie underneath London? Or what artefacts might have been left behind by its former inhabitants, perhaps from centuries ago?

Or if you’ve ever fancied being an archaeologist – the Big Dig at the London Museum Docklands is on again this year.

We went last year when my daughter was seven – and from the website it looks very similar again this year.

We had our own trench filled with sand, a variety of digging tools, and some sheets to fill in to log what we had found and in which part of our trench. When we had found something, like a piece of pottery or a broken tile, we could take it over to a display case to compare to other artefacts to try and find out the rough date.

The children (and adults!) got to wear high-vis jackets and hard hats and the museum staff leading the activity gave an initial presentation about what an archaeologist does, how they have to be careful when they are excavating, and the kinds of things that they might find. They were really encouraging as my daughter dug as well, and she was excited every time she found something and identified whether it had come from Roman times, the Tudor period and so on.

We got a really good educational experience about different periods of London history and the sorts of items that have been found and what they might represent. At the same time, it was really good fun – it also counted towards my daughter’s Brownie badge in archaeology!

Tickets for the Big Dig this year are £8.50 including a £2 donation (I’m not sure if that’s optional or not) and the experience lasts about an hour – it runs until 31 August.

You can also visit the Museum of London Docklands itself free of charge and we spent about 1.5 hours there. It wasn’t the most exciting museum we have visited and there were parts my daughter wasn’t interested in – for example the Docklands area during the Blitz and also some of the exhibits about trade. Even so there were several interactive parts of the exhibits, which kept my daughter happily occupied for a while.

The Museum of London Docklands also has a play area for the under 8s called Mudlarks, that you have to pay for (from £3.95); we didn’t do this on our visit and I can’t remember why, it may have been that I didn’t think there would be time as we also had lunch in Canary Wharf and had a journey of over an hour each way.

The Big Dig is a really interesting and unique activity that kids can try in the summer holidays, and is particularly good if they are learning about the Romans or Tudors or indeed are interested in what lies beneath our capital city.