Every September, the current crop of London exhibitions close to make way for exciting new shows. That means it’s your last chance to see some of the summer’s hottest exhibitions…

Closing on 5 September:

• Rude Britannia: British Comic Art
• Ernesto Neto
• The New Décor
• Francis Alys
• Urban Africa – David Adjaye’s Photographic Journey
• Sustainable Futures

Closing later this month:

• Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes, Discoveries – 12 Sep
• The Surreal House – 12 Sep
• Magnificent Maps – 19 Sep
• Wolfgang Tillmans – 19 Sep
• BP Portrait Award – 19 Sep
• Sargent and the Sea – 26 Sep

But don’t worry, there’s plenty to look forward to this autumn. Major new exhibitions include Gauguin, Treasures from Budapest, Serge Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, and the Turner Prize.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, today opened the new Wandsworth Museum in South London, which houses a fascinating array of exhibits and artefacts from the local area.

The new museum replaces the previous one which was closed in 2007, and it provides a detailed insight into life in Wandsworth from the Stone Age to the modern day.

Along with an impressive collection of objects, there is also a timeline of events telling the story of the cultural and natural landscape of the borough.

Among the exhibits on show is a woolly rhinoceros skull dated to 25,000BC, a telephone exchange, and a diagram of the local Young’s brewery site.

There is also a collection of art depicting John Burns, the former local Member of Parliament and one of the leaders of the London Dock Strike in 1889.

Mr. Johnson told Visit London:

“I think it’s fantastically important to have museums such as this because we live in an age where people are both forgetful of their history but also incredibly excited when they discover about it.

“It’s frightfully important that local kids are able to come here and open a window into the lives of previous generations and inhabitants of Wandsworth.

“This was a very important place in the life of London and the life of the nation as a whole and we’ve now got great exhibits here to tell that story.”

The new Wandsworth Museum opens to the public on 3 Sep (website coming soon).

What’s your favourite local museum in London?