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London Boroughs - Archives and Local Studies Libraries

This page lists the present-day boroughs of Greater London together with the counties which originally contained their current area, with links to their web sites. For each there is a link to libraries, archives or local studies, with street address.

Our London Parishes and Boroughs page has tables showing the current boroughs with links to maps, also a table of the 1889 Metropolitan Boroughs.

Select a letter to go to boroughs starting with: B - C - E - G - H - I - K - L - M - N - R - S - T - W

Barking and Dagenham (Essex)

Museums and Heritage, including family history features

Local Studies Centre at Valance House Museum, Becontree Avenue, Dagenham RM8 3HT.

Barnet (Middlesex & Hertfordshire)

Libraries - Archives and Local Studies Centreat 80 Daws Lane, Mill Hill, London NW7 4SL. Look at their website for opening hours before going there! The Centre holds the records of the Borough of Barnet and its predecessors for the areas of Barnet, Edgware, Finchley Golders Green and Hendon.

Bexley (Kent)

Local Studies and Archives Centre, Townley Road, Bexleyheath, Kent, DA6 7HJ.

Local History

Brent (Middlesex)

Libraries and Heritage Services

Bromley (Kent)

From A to Z listing choose Archives, Libraries, Museums

Archives at Central Library, High Street, Bromley, BR1 1EX

Camden (Middlesex)

Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library , 32-38 Theobalds Road , London WC1X 8PA. This web page has links to their family history pages, with "Getting Started", "Guides to Research" and "Family history sources"

City of London or Corporation of London

Records and Archives

From Easter 2010 the former Corporation of London Record Office holding the official archives of the Corporation of London, the Guildhall Library, manuscript section, the Guildhall Prints and Maps collection and the London Metropolitan Archives will be merged into one service under the title London Metropolitan Archives, and based at the Clerkenwell site of the LMA. However, archives formerly in the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section will be available on request in the Guildhall Library Rare Books section. See the announcement from the Director of Libraries, Archives and Guildhall Art Gallery

Corporation of London Record Office CLRO holds the official archives of the Corporation of London, containing records that document the government of the City spanning eleven centuries.

London Metropolitan Archives

Quote from their web page: "London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the largest local authority record office in the United Kingdom. There are 72KM of archives, modern records, plans, audio-visual and printed material in our strong-rooms - an enormous amount of information about the capital and its people. This material dates from 1067 to 2006...". LMA has online a number of useful information leaflets and a Site search.

London Generations Database

Quote from their web page: "Principally, there are three types of search phrase which you can enter:

Please note that the database only holds details of registers of churches, schools and genealogical sources. It does not contain individual names of Londoners. Therefore a search phrase such as Richard Thomas will not produce results."

Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2 - manuscript section and details of books published

Quote from their web page: "If your interest is in family history, we may be able to help in tracing your ancestors. Although our primary sources, such as the parish registers held in the Manuscripts section, relate mainly to the 'square mile' of the City, we hold a wide range of useful secondary sources. These include family history society journals and other publications, printed parish register transcripts, Burke's and Debrett's peerage and landed gentry publications, directories of professions (eg Army List, Navy List, Air Force List, Crockford's Clerical Directory, Law List, Medical Directory), printed registers of public schools and universities and the London Gazette. We also have an extensive collection of trade and telephone directories for the whole of the British Isles, the International Genealogical Index for the British Isles on both microfiche and CD-ROM and the 1881 census surname index. Useful CD-ROMS include Palmer's Index to the Times, 1790-1905 and the Official Index to the Times, 1906-1980."

Croydon (Surrey)

Local Studies Library, the Archives Service and Museum are all lcoated at Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1ET

Ealing (Middlesex)

Local History Index includes information for the local history centre, 103 Ealing Broadway Centre (first floor), The Broadway, W5 5JY. Phone 020 8567 3656 ext 37. Includes council, school etc archives, newspapers from 1854, thousands of photographs, maps from 1856, books and paintings. Leaflet available. Closed Sunday, Monday.

Library catalogue

Enfield (Middlesex)

Library Service
Local History Unit Southgate Town Hall, Green Lanes, London N13 4XD
Enfield museum service includes Forty Hall museum - for its address and opening times see 24 hour museum and search for "Enfield".

Greenwich (Kent)

Greenwich Heritage Centre opened in 2003 replacing Greenwich Museum and Local Studies Library, at Building 41, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London SE18. It also incorporates an exhibition Inside the Arsenal. Opening times: Tuesday Saturday: 9am - 5pm; Closed: Sunday, Monday and Public holidays.

Greenwich Library Services page includes a link to "your library online" for catalogue.

Hackney (Middlesex)

Hackney Archives Department 43 De Beauvoir Road London N1 5SQ

Hammersmith and Fulham (Middlesex)

Archives The Lilla Huset, 191 Talgarth Road, London W6 8BJ

Haringey (Middlesex)

Archives and Local History Bruce Castle, Tottenham, Lordship Lane, London N17 8NU

Harrow (Middlesex)

Local History Collection Civic Centre Library, Civic Centre, Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UU

Havering (Essex)

Family History and Lcoal Studies in Havering Libraries.

Central Library, St Edwards Way, Romford RM1 3AR

Hillingdon (Middlesex)

Libraries and catalogue

Local Studies, Archives and Museum Service, Central Library, 14-15 High Street, Uxbridge UB8 1HD

Heritage Builds Bridges is a joint project between the Borough of Hillingdon, Brunel University and the British and Foreign School Society to catalogue and digitise their collections and make them available online.

Hounslow (Middlesex)

Libraries: addresses and contacts has a full list. Local Studies information is at Hounslow library, on the first floor of the Treaty Centre Shopping Centre on Hounslow High Street, and Chiswick Library, Duke's Avenue, W4 2AB (includes Brentford information). There is a separate website of library information.

Islington (Middlesex)

Libraries

Local History Centre Islington Local History Collection, Finsbury Library, 245 St John Street, London EC1V 4NB. Tel: 020 7527 7988. Email: local.history@islington.gov.uk

Islington Museum is underneath the Finsbury Library at 245 St John Street, London EC1V 4NB. Tel: 020 7527 3235. Open daily 10-5, closed Wednesday and Sunday. Email: islington.museum@islington.gov.uk

Kensington and Chelsea (Middlesex)

Libraries

Local Studies at the Central Library, Phillimore Walk, LONDON W8 7RX

The Virtual Museum of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Kingston upon Thames (Surrey)

Libraries

Museum at Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2PS UK. Local History Room is Room 46, North Kingston Centre, Richmond Road, Kingston upon Thames KT2 5PE. UK.

Lambeth (Surrey)

Leisure and Culture links to libraries and Lambeth Archives the borough's record office and local history library, Minet Library, 52 Knatchbull Road SE5 9QY. Lambeth Landmark has online the best 6,000 images from the Lambeth Archives collection of 30,000 old photographs, drawings, prints and water colours.

Lewisham (Surrey & Kent)

Local Studies Centreon the second floor of Lewisham Library, 199-201 Lewisham High Street, London SE13 6LG

Merton (Surrey)

Merton Local Studies Centre, Merton Civic Centre, London Rd. Morden Surrey SM4 5DX

Newham (Essex)

Archvies and Local History

Archives and Local Studies Library Stratford Library, 3 The Grove, London E15 1EL.

Redbridge (Essex)

Local Studies and Archives , Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EA.

Richmond upon Thames (Surrey)

Library - Local Studies and Special Collections Albert Barkas Room, Old Town Hall, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond TW9 1TP.

Cemeteries - web pages have maps, and links to indexes where available.

Southwark (Surrey)

Local History Library at rear of John Harvard library, 211 Borough High Street, London SE1 1JA .

Sutton (Surrey)

Local Studies.
Archive and Local Studies search room, Level 5 West, Central Library, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1EA.
Tel: (020) 8770 4700 Email: local.studies@sutton.gov.uk

The Diocese of Southwark has a useful website with links to record offices, parishes and parish websites.

Tower Hamlets (Middlesex)

Local history library and archives Bancroft Library, 277 Bancroft Road, London, El 4DQ. Covers the area of the present-day London Borough of Tower Hamlets; the original East End of London which, until 1965, comprised of the Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney.

Waltham Forest (Middlesex & Essex)

Libraries

Local History and Heritage web page has links to Vestry House, Waltham Forest's museum of local history, which includes archives. Address is: Vestry Road, Walthamstow , London E17 9NH.

Wandsworth (Surrey)

Wandsworth Heritage Service, Battersea Library, Lavender Hill, SW11 1JB

Westminster (Middlesex)

Libraries and archives

City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann's Street, London SW1P 2DE.


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[Created by David Hawgood. Last updated 09 Mar 2010 by Andrew Millard.]

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