These range from unsurprising ones like, say, transport or education, to more difficult and controversial subjects such as sex and love or crime. Most of the exhibits are on open display, though some have to be behind glass, because they are fragile or stealable. The idea is that objects are recorded and presented in a meaningful context. There is an introductory board for each part of the displays, just giving basic information about what happened in Croydon at each particular period, and there are caption books which give basic label-type information on the objects on display. But the main way in which visitors can engage with the exhibits is by using the interactive in front of each chronological display.
Visitors can use the interactive in three main ways.
And they can move between different parts of the programme. One of the objects in the first display is a baby's feeding bottle used in Croydon in the mid 19th century. Visitors can touch the screen and call up basic label type information about it. They can then either go on to look at another object or to call up a mini documentary relating to breast and bottle feeding in Croydon at that time. Bottles made at this date were very hard to clean, and clean water was hard to obtain.