London’s smallest museum has opened – next to The Monument

London has a new contender for its smallest museum — and it’s inside an old public toilet next to the Monument.

Built only about 20 years ago, the toilet block had been disused for some time and was earmarked for demolition. Instead, funding from the local business group has seen it converted into a micro museum, telling the story of the disaster commemorated by its considerably taller neighbour.

There aren’t any historic artefacts inside, but the building itself has become a display, wrapped in historic images, quotations and enlarged details from the Monument’s sculpted relief. Charles II appears dressed as a Roman emperor, while figures representing Peace and Plenty offer a rather more optimistic vision of London’s recovery.

It’s worth taking a circuit of the building before going in. The illustrations move between the destruction of the old city and hopes for its rebuilding, with architectural drawings and a quotation from Christopher Wren adding context to the column looming overhead.

However, the main attraction is inside, which explains why you might find people queuing outside a former loo.

A roughly five-minute animated film tells the story of the Great Fire of September 1666, using a historic map to show the flames spreading across the City, accompanied by excerpts from Samuel Pepys’s and John Evelyn’s diaries. Around the screen, red walls, historic illustrations and an illuminated display of stylised flames make good use of the tiny space. The animation is rather good, and the whole thing effectively explains why The Monument exists in the first place.

It holds about eight people at a time, so a queue is inevitable, but on my visit it wasn’t long, and the film was worth the wait.

My main grumble is the annoyingly lengthy list of health warnings beside the entrance, which reads as though a lawyer briefly mistook a five-minute history film for an expedition into fire itself.

The museum has opened ahead of the Monument’s 350th anniversary next year, marking the column’s completion in 1677. The Monument Micro Museum is free to visit and open daily from 10am to 5:30pm.

Eastern City BID commissioned the Monument Micro Museum, while Winkle Picker Ltd and Sugar HK curated it free of charge, with historic images provided in collaboration with the London Archives.

And maybe once you’re inside, tell your fellow visitors that they’re standing in an old toilet. See what they say.