The court performances of the early seventeenth century presented an image of perfect political harmony; but backstage the reality was very different.

From a mechanical garden to an automatic tea-table, in the late eighteenth century you were bound to find something extraordinary at Merlin’s Museum of Mechanical Amusements.

Step inside a sixteenth-century house in Smithfield.

Flames are racing towards your house: what do you save? In 1666, Samuel Pepys prioritised his cheese.