Port City

London: Port City tells the story of the UK’s busiest port, using sight, sound and scent. Covering over 200 years of history, this major exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands explores how the Port of London has shaped the city, its people and their surroundings.

Presented in partnership with the Port of London Authority, the display dives into previously untapped archives - including a wealth of rarely-seen historic 19th and 20th century images - as well as contemporary art commissions and a series of scented crates.

The four bespoke scents included in the exhibition were developed by AVM Curiosities in collaboration with Aroma Prime and CPL Aromas. These were:

The Warehouse

Wooden containers, hessian sacks, concrete floors, coffee, tea, tobacco.

Handling Hides

Animalistic, musk, leathery, flesh, skin, bone, fishy, visceral, guttural.

The Docks

Smoky, industrial, smog, fog, coal, oil, engines, cold air, marine edge, wood, watery, brine.

Home

Warm, welcoming, comfort, coat drying by the fire, smoke, fire, vanilla, tobacco, wool, wood, 1960s wallpaper.

These aromas took their inspiration from a number of oral histories, which were collected by the museum. These memories of the dockworkers from 1890-1980 included personal scent stories, as well as more general impressions of the experience of working on the docks.

In the process of creating these scents, this collaborative partnership has reframed the way the museum collects and thinks about olfactory data.

London: Port City
Olfactory curation by AVM Curiosities
Exhibition curator Claire Dobbin
Museum of London Docklands
22 Oct 2021 - 8 May 2022.