This page is intended to provide quick links to a range of internet sites of use to those interested in, or studying, London, urban or metropolitan history.
London related
Archives and Libraries
- London Metropolitan Archives (for combined collections of former Greater London Record Office, City of London Records Office, and Guildhall Manuscripts)
- Guildhall Library (Mainly printed books)
- Bishopsgate Institute Library
- The Women's Library @ LSE
London Borough Archives and Local Studies Libraries
- Barking and Dagenham Local Studies Centre
- Barnet Local Studies and Archives Centre
- Bexley Local Studies and Archives Centre
- Brent Community History Library and Archive
- Bromley Local Studies Library and Archives
- Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre
- Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives Service
- Ealing Local History Centre
- Enfield Local History Unit
- Greenwich Heritage Centre
- Hackney Archives Department
- Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and Local History Centre
- Haringey Archives and Local History
- Harrow Local Studies Library
- Havering Local Studies Library
- Hillingdon Local Studies, Archives and Museums Service
- Hounslow Local Studies and Archives
- Islington Local History Centre
- Kensington and Chelsea Local Studies and Archives
- Kingston Local History Room
- Lambeth Archives
- Lewisham Local History and Archives Centre
- Merton Local Studies Centre
- Newham Archives and Local Studies Library
- Redbridge Local Studies and Archives Service
- Richmond Local Studies Collection
- Southwark Local History Library
- Sutton Local Studies and Archives
- Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
- Waltham Forest Local Studies Library
- Wandsworth Museum and Local History Service
- City of Westminster Archives Centre
Home Counties Archives and Local Studies Libraries
- Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Services
- Berkshire Record Office
- Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies
- Essex Record Office
- Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
- Kent History and Library Centre
- Oxfordshire History Centre
- Surrey History Centre
Museums
- Museum of London
- Museum of London Docklands
- The Foundling Museum
- The Geffrye Museum (museum of domestic interiors from 1600)
- Horniman Museum
- Jewish Museum, London
- London Transport Museum
- Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture
- Ragged School Museum
London Borough Museums
- Barnet Museum and Church Farmhouse Museum (19th century domestic life)
- Brent Museum
- The Bruce Castle Museum (Haringey)
- Museum of Croydon
- The Cuming Museum (Southwark)
- Greenwich Industrial History
- Gunnersbury Park Museum (Ealing and Hounslow)
- Hampstead Museum
- Headstone Manor Museum (Harrow)
- Islington Museum
- Redbridge Museum
- Valence House Museum (Barking and Dagenham)
- Vestry House Museum (Waltham Forest)
- Wimbledon Society/Museum of Local History
Local History Societies
- London Record Society
- Greater London Industrial Archaeological Society (GLIAS)
- London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS)
- Barking and District Historical Society
- Barnet and District Local History Society
- Friern Barnet and District Local History Society
- Camden History Society (researches and published on all aspects of the old boroughs of Hampstead, St Pancras and Holborn and the districts of Highgate, Kentish Town and Camden Town)
- Friends of Hackney Archives
- Hackney Society
- Hornsey Historical Society (LB of Haringey)
- Islington Archaeology and History Society
- Kensington and Chelsea Community History Group (Historytalk -"bringing community history to like")
Urban and Metropolitan related
Research Centres
- Centre for Urban History - international centre for interdisciplinary research in urban history (University of Leicester)
- Centre for the Study of Migration - (Queen Mary, University of London)
External Resources
Image libraries
- Collage - image database containing over 20,000 maps, prints and drawings from the City of London's collections
- Bethnal Green Photo Archive - collection of old photographs of the Bethnal Green area
Online projects
- The Church of England in London Online Resource Guide - developed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Building on History: The Church in London project involving historians from the Open University and King's College London and representatives of the Anglican Diocese of London and Lambeth Palace Library, this guide is a free toolkit for those who want to find out more about the history of the Church of England in London and the wider role of religion in the communities of the metropolis since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
- Exploring 20th Century London - explore thousands of online objects drawn from 14 London museums, oral histories, and information about every decade and corner of Greater London
- Foundling Hospital Research Resources - a collection of resources to aid research into the Foundling Hospital, including links to image collection, 'Foundling Voices' featuring experiences of former foundlings through audio and film, and online exhibition 'Threads of Feeling', and a history by D.S. Allin of the early years of the hospital.
- Historic Hospital Admissions Records Project (HHARP) - This project provides online access to nearly 120,000 individual admission records between 1852 and 1914 for three London children's hospitals: Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Evelina Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease, as well as the recently added Royal Glasgow Children's Hospital.
- Locating London's Past - Funded by JISC, and the result of collaboration between the IHR and the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, Locating London’s Past is a new website that lets users delve deep into the capital’s past, revolutionising our understanding of London’s history. The website is the first to enable users to map interactively information from a vast array of sources.
- London Lives 1690-1800 - crime, poverty and social policy in the metropolis - London Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 - A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court