• As the new academic year begins we are delighted to welcome Sir Brian Jenkins GBE as Chair of the CMH Advisory Committee. Sir Brian, Lord Mayor of London in 1991-2 and formerly Deputy Chairman of Barclays Bank plc and Chairman of the Charities Aid Foundation, was a Patron of the CMH from its inception in 1988 until 2003 and has provided much support to the Centre over the years. We are also very pleased that Professor Andrew Saint (Survey of London), Dr Alexandrina Buchanan (Archivist, Clothworkers’ Company) and Dr Patrick Wallis (LSE) will be joining the Committee this year. The Committee plays an essential role in giving advice on the Centre’s activities and in the development of its long-term strategy. The Committee’s membership consists of academics and representatives of libraries, archives, museums, local government and City organisations. We very much look forward to working with Sir Brian and the rest of the Committee in furthering the CMH’s aims and thank the Director of the IHR, Professor David Bates, for having filled the Chair so ably for the past few years.

Project News

• We are delighted to report that the Wellcome Trust has awarded £197,539 for a new 18-month project, ‘Housing environments and health in early modern London, 1550-1750’. This project, undertaken in partnership with Birkbeck (University of London) and the University of Cambridge, will build upon the work of the ‘People in Place: families, households and housing in early modern London’ (PIP) project. Employing the existing PIP research team led by Dr Vanessa Harding (Birkbeck) and co-directed by Dr Matthew Davies (CMH) and Professor Richard Smith (Cambridge Group for the History of Population), it will examine the extent to which environmental factors and the social characteristics of individual, family and locality determined the disease and mortality profile of the pre-industrial city. The new project aims to test the supposition that variation in mortality experience (infant, seasonal, epidemic, etc) across the early modern city correlates broadly with geographical variations in social and environmental character. Although such comparisons have usually taken place at ward- or parish-level, by drawing upon and enhancing the large database already compiled by the PIP project - which contains a wide range of information on families, households, properties and buildings in three contrasting areas of the city (Cheapside, St Botolph Aldgate and Clerkenwell) - it should be possible to identify a range of variations in mortality and social/environmental characteristics at the ‘micro-level’ of precinct, street and even clusters of houses. Utilising mapping techniques to illuminate and analyse health and mortality patterns within the populations of the selected areas, this ‘micro-geographical study’ should significantly sharpen and refine our understanding of the relationship between mortality and environment. Work on the project will begin on 26 October.

• With the new project about to start, work is coming to an end on the AHRC-funded project, ‘People in Place: families, households and housing in early modern London’. The remaining weeks will be devoted to completing a series of articles on the results of the project, formatting data for use on British History Online, and improving accessibility to the findings by enhancing the website (see http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/pip/). A summary of the project is also being produced in pamphlet form - details on how to obtain copies will be available in the next newsletter. Members of the research team have recently given papers at a specialist session on ‘The changing urban family, 1500-1750’ at the European Association for Urban History conference in Stockholm (30 August-2 September) and at the British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Southampton (18-19 September).

• Our other AHRC-funded project ‘Londoners and the Law: pleadings in the court of common pleas 1399-1509’ <http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/projects.html#law>, began on 1 June. This 30-month project, under the directorship of Matthew Davies and Hannes Kleineke (History of Parliament Trust), aims to assess the nature of the litigation, and the function of particular kinds of suit in seeking remedies to a wide range of breaches of contract, thus extending our knowledge of how individuals and groups such as guilds understood and used the law in relation to their business, family or property interest. As well as working on the project’s methodology and constructing the database which will form the basis of future analysis, the Research Officers, Jonathan Mackman and Matthew Stevens, have spent most of their time at The National Archives in the laborious task of extracting information from the plea rolls. To date about 10 per cent of the data entry has been completed - all names, places, occupations, significant dates, credit and land transactions, and case summaries given for each case involving Londoners. The early indications are that many of the people who appear in the plea rolls of the Court of Common Pleas are also evident in other extant records of the period and it should therefore be possible to build-up studies of individuals. The data is also revealing interesting information on the legal process.

• The Centre’s Director, Matthew Davies, is in the final stages of editing an updated volume of histories of the religious houses of London and Middlesex originally compiled by the Victoria County History. The Religious Houses of London and Middlesex (ed. Caroline M Barron and Matthew Davies) should be available from the IHR bookshop by the end of the year. From January to July 2007, Matthew will taking a sabbatical to allow him to undertake research for a forthcoming volume on the History of London 1300-1550. Although he’ll continue to supervise students and teach on the MA course during this period, James Moore, our Deputy Director, will take charge of the day-to-day activities of the Centre.

• James is currently completing an application for a project on ‘Urban Governance, Political Networks and Policy Formation in English Municipal Government, 1860-1914’, focusing on Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, which will be submitted shortly to the AHRC. He also organised a very successful colloquium on ‘The 1906 Election and the Legacy of the Last Liberal Government’ on 1 July at the IHR. The meeting, which was held in conjunction with the Liberal Democrat History group, attracted a number of distinguished historians and MPs. James’s book, The Transformation of Urban Liberalism: Party Politics and Urban Governance in Late Nineteenth-Century England has just been published by Ashgate (ISBN: 0 7546 5000 6; 336pp. Further details at: https://www.ashgate.com/shopping/title.asp?key1=&key2=&orig=results&isbn=0%207546%205000%206

• Derek Keene (The Leverhulme Professor of Comparative Metropolitan History) is continuing to research and write contributions for a volume on the History of London 600-1300. As one of the organisers, he is also currently very busy sifting through the large number of proposals for papers for the ‘Medieval Cities’ thematic strand at the 2007 Leeds International Medieval Congress . He has recently given papers on ‘Communication’ in Zagreb and on ‘Buckinghamshire in the shadow of the medieval metropolis’ in Aylesbury; he is also a major contributor to the edited volume Cities and Cultural Exchange, 1400-1700, will be published shortly by Cambridge University Press.

• For personal reasons, Jennifer Holmes is taking a year’s break from her post as Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Fellow. During this period, however, she will continue to devote some time to continue her comparative research regarding London and Rome in the early twentieth century. This will include the government of Rome under the administration of Ernest Nathan [1907-1914], and the Master Plan for Rome of 1909 and will concentrate on how and why Nathan intended to model the development of Rome along the lines of the London County Council, as he declared he would in 1907. Another related line of research explores the relationship of antiquity and modernity in London and Rome, looking at written and visual representations as well as development plans for the cities.

Postgraduate Students

• Following the successful first year of the joint CMH/VCH MA in Metropolitan and Regional History, we have welcomed several new students to the course this month. Joining returning part-time students, Cheryl Bailey, John Hinshelwood and Janette Scarborough are John Clifford, Jeremy Sims and Carole Mills. A new option on the ‘Making of the Modern City’ has been added and will be taught by James Moore. The MA is also one of the programmes that will use the School of Advanced Study’s new Virtual Learning Environment, which is being piloted in 2006-7. Offering greater tutor/student interactivity through bulletin boards and messaging and improved access to resources, we hope that the VLE will help to enhance the learning experience. Matthew Davies is one of the coordinators of this project within the School. We shall shortly be beginning a recruitment drive for the MA in 2007-8. Details of the course are available at: http://www.history.ac.uk/degrees/metma. Anyone interested in applying for the course should contact, in the first instance, the Course Administrator, James Moore (Email: James.Moore@sas.ac.uk).

• Among those joining our existing MPhil/PhD students is Kathrin Pieren. Kathrin is the recipient of the first of three studentships, funded under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards Scheme and in partnership with the Museum of London, for work on the theme of ‘London on display: civic identities, cultures and industry, 1851-1951’. Her thesis will be on ‘Migration and identity constructions in an imperial metropolis: the representation of Jewish heritage in London between 1887 and 1956’. Mary Lester will also be exploring the theme of civic identities, cultures and industry but for the area of Dalston and West Ham, 1886-1923. Miguel Garcia Sanchez, who has been attached to the Centre as a visiting student, has now formally joined the Centre to work on ‘Poverty, inequality and social networks in two European metropolises. A comparison between Madrid and London, 1550-1700’; Cholki Hong’s thesis is on ‘The identity of the City of London c.1897-1953’ and Benedict Coffin will studying ‘The Ango-Saxon church in politics and society: the role and impact of bishops, church councils and ministers’.

Conferences and other activities

• The two-day conference ‘Teaching London’, jointly organised with the University of Westminster and postponed from last April, will now be held on 3 (at the IHR) and 4 November 2006 (University of Westminster). The conference will explore the ways in which the past, present and future of London is taught or used in teaching in a broad variety of disciplines and subject areas. The programme has been divided into sections on themes of ‘Walking the City’, ‘Teaching London’s Cultural Quarters’, ‘Multi-cultural London’, ‘Resources for Teaching London’, ‘Developing London Courses’, ‘London Courses for International Students’ and ‘Developing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in London studies’ and is now available on the Centre’s website at http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/Teachingprog.rtf. Registration forms can be downloaded at: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/Teachingform.rtf .

• The Centre is also organising, along with colleagues from Oxford and Bath Spa, a conference on ‘London in Text and History, 1400-1700’ to be held on 13-15 September 2007 at Jesus College, Oxford. The focus of the conference will be on how the political, economic, and religious changes of the period were represented in a range of forms and aims to facilitate exchange among scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including history, literature, art history, architecture and cartography. Plenary speakers will be: Caroline Barron, Paul Griffiths, Rob Hume, Mark Jenner, Mark Knights and Peter Stallybrass. Papers are particularly welcome on: the idea of the ‘City’; citizenship; history and civic memory; belief and the citizen; the urban landscape; urban ‘deviance’; visual London; inclusion and exclusion: the problem of the stranger; London’s business and commerce; literary London; civic entertainments; communication and information; reades, writers and the circulation of texts.

• The Metropolitan History Seminar programme for 2006-7 is now available on the IHR’s seminar pages at: http://www.history.ac.uk/ihrseminars/seminar.php?series=134. The seminars take place on alternate Wednesdays in the Autumn and Spring Terms in the Pollard Room (first floor) at the IHR at 5.30pm. Forthcoming seminars for this term are: 1 November, Bruno Blondé (Antwerp) ‘Material culture in a declining metropolis: Antwerp in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’; 15 November, James Moore (CMH) on ‘The problem of corruption in municipal government and politics, c.1850–1914: Manchester, Liverpool and Wolverhampton’, 29 November, Panikos Panayi (de Montfort University) ‘The rise of the foreign restaurant in London’; and 13 December, Alysa Levine ( Oxford Brookes), ‘Pauper apprentices in eighteenth-century London’. The Locality and Region seminar (Ecclesiastical Room, IHR, Tuesdays 5.15pm; programme at: http://www.history.ac.uk/ihrseminars/seminar.php?series=129) includes a paper on 14 November by David Marsh (Birkbeck) on ‘Attitudes to the public ownership and use of open space in early modern London’. The IHR runs some 45 separate history seminar programmes – all of which are free of charge and open to all - for details and programmes, see: http://www.history.ac.uk/ihrseminars/index.php.

• Final proof-reading and indexing is now underway on the next CMH publication, Guilds and Association in Europe, 1200-1900, edited by Ian Anders Gadd and Patrick Wallis (due December 2006). Arising from a CMH conference held in 2003, the volume contains ten wide-ranging essays: ‘English urban guilds, c.900-1300’ (Derek Keene), ‘Guilds in urban politics in late medieval England’ (Gervase Rosser), ‘Swedish guilds in the18th and early 19th century’ (Lars Edgren); ‘Parliament, the Navy, and the splitting of the London Barber-Surgeons’ Company in 1745’ (Margaret Pelling); ‘French debates about restoring guilds at the start of the nineteenth century’ (Philippe Minard); ‘Representation and investment strategies in the early modern guild world: a comparison between the south and north of the Low Countries’ (Johan Dambruyne); ‘The Gardeners’ Company of London in the 17th century’ (David Marsh), ‘The Silk Weavers of nineteenth-century Lyon’ (George J Sheridan, jr); ‘Journeymen’s mobility and the guild system in central Europe’ (Sigrid Wadauer) and ‘Guild tradition and the emergence of British trade unionism’ (Malcolm Chase). We are currently offering the book at a special pre-publication price of £12 + postage. To take up this offer, please download and complete the order form available at: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/Guilds2flyer.pdf and return to the Centre by 20 December 2006.

• One of our former researchers, Dr Samantha Letters, is currently researching the history of the University of London ‘External System’ and would like to ask if you could publicise the project to your local history group or other contacts. In particular, she would like to know of any references to the External System in fiction. The University is producing a publication and a website for the 150th anniversary of the External System in 2008 and is keen to collect information, photographs and as many memories as possible. You can see further information about the project at: http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/150/index.shtml. If you have any information which you feel might be useful, Samantha can be contacted via email at: ihrcmh@sas.ac.uk

February 2007 dates for the diary

• Derek Keene will be giving a lecture at the Royal Historical Society, University College London, on Friday 2 February at 5.00 pm on ‘Text, visualisation and politics: London, 1130-1250’.

• On Friday 9 February the CMH is co-hosting with the Scientific Instrument Society, an illustrated talk by Dr Anita McConnell on ‘Jesse Ramsden: London’s Leading Scientific Instrument Maker. Why?’ Those of you with long memories will know that Anita was attached to the Centre in 1993-4 working on two projects: ‘Optical Glass and the Scientific Instrument Trade in London before 1750’ <http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/projects.html#optic> and ‘From Craft to Industry: London’s Scientific Instrument Makers’ Workshops, 1780-1820’ (http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/projects.html#craft>. For her forthcoming book, Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800): London’s leading scientific instrument maker (Ashgate 2007), Anita has explored Ramsden’s family origins, his education and his craft training his premises, work and manufacturing practice, and has delved into archives around Europe. The talk will begin at 3 pm. There is no charge and everyone is welcome.

• The IHR, along with other Institutes from the School of Advanced Study, participating in the inaugural Bloomsbury Festival which is being held on the weekend of 20-22 October. Details of the Festival are available at the festival website: http://www.bloomsburyfestival.org. A full and varied programme, ranging from debates and exhibitions to walking tours and street performances, has been arranged to reflect the historical and contemporary identity of the Bloomsbury Quarter as a forum for intellectual and creative exchange. All the weekend’s events - and entrance to many of the museums and galleries in the area - are free, thanks to the support of The Brunswick. In particular, the Institute has organised, in association with the Coram Family, a debate on ‘Why does local History matter?’. This will be held at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Sq on Saturday 21 October, 2.30-3.30 pm. The speakers will be Professor John Beckett (University of Nottingham and VCH, IHR), Sian Roberts (Birmingham) on Community History; Oku Ekpenyon on Black History, Jeanne Kanuick on Adopted children’s complex identities – building a coherent narrative, and John Caldicott (Chairman of the Old Coram Association). All welcome.

• The conference ‘Why History Matters’ (IHR, 12-13 February), organised by the IHR in collaboration with the Royal Historical Society, the Historical Association, OFSTED and History UK (HE), aims to affirm why History is important to education and national life in the early twenty-first century. By bringing together school teachers, academic historians, educationalists, policy makers and careers officers, it will also explore how the school history curriculum can be made more relevant, so that it provides pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding to help them to be successful adults. Both the programme and registration form can be downloaded from: http://www.history.ac.uk/conferences/education.html#why.

• The IHR Publications department has recently published the 2006 edition of Grants for History: a Guide to Funding, and (with The National Archives) A Guide to the Naval Records in the National Archives, ed. by Randolph Cock and N A M. See the New Publications section, below, for more details.

• Forthcoming training courses at the IHR include: ‘Methods and sources for historical research’ (13-17 November); ‘Databases for historians I’ (21-24 November); ‘The Internet for historical research’ (30 November); ‘Interviewing for researchers’ (4 December) and ‘Basic statistics for historians’ (Mondays, 20 November 2006-12 February 2007). For further information and application forms see: http://www.history.ac.uk/training/ or email: ihrtrain@sas.ac.uk.

• History & Policy, an independent initiative working for better public policy through an understanding of history, now has a full-time External Relations Officer based in the Centre for Contemporary British History at the IHR. History & Policy is the first port-of-call for anyone in government, parliament, think-tanks or the media who wants to understand the history of a current policy issue or access an expert historian. For further details, contact Mel Porter (email: mel.porter@sas.ac.uk) or visit the website at: http://www.historyandpolicy.org.

• Among the Warburg Institute’s ‘Maps and Society’ lecture series are: 19 October Dr Robin Woolven (London Topographical Society) ‘The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps, 1939-1945’ and on 25 January Dr David Marsh (Birkbeck), ‘Maps, Myths, and Gardens: Faithorne and Newcourt’s Map of London (1658)’. The lectures are held at the Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB at 5.00pm. Admission is free and meetings are followed by refreshments. All are welcome. For the full programme see: http://www.maphistory.info/warburgprog.html.

• Relevant to the history of London trade, a conference on ‘Britannia & Muscovy: English Silver at the Court of the Tsars’, organised jointly by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Gilbert Collection, will be held at the Paul Mellon Centre, 16 Bedford Square, London WC1 on 24 November 2006. The full programme and booking information is available at: http://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/eventsf/kremlinsilver.html.

• Colleagues at the Raphael Samuel History Centre (University of East London) have organised a day-long event for 2 December (10.00 am – 10.00 pm) celebrating London and one of its leading historians, Raphael Samuel (1934-1996). The programme includes panel discussions on London history and politics. There will also be films, exhibitions, bookstalls, live music, and the 2006 Raphael Samuel Memorial Lecture given by Gareth Stedman Jones on ‘The Redemptive Powers of Violence? Carlyle, Dickens and Marx on the Legacy of the French Revolution’. The event will take place at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 and is open to all, free of charge with no booking required. For further information see: http://www.raphael-samuel.org.uk/Centre/peopleslondon.htm.

• If you are not intending to join us in Oxford at the ‘London in Text and History’ conference on 13-15 September 2007 (see above), a conference on ‘Environment, Health and History’ is being organised by the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for 12-15 September 2007 at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London WC1. Keynote speakers will be Chris Hamlin (Notre Dame University, Indiana), Dieter Schott (Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany) and Chris Sellers (State University of New York at Stony Brook). Whilst registration details will be available in the new year, the organisers are currently inviting proposals for papers (abstracts of 300 words) on any aspect related to this theme.

• In news from the Centre of East Anglian Studies at the University of East Anglia, a 5-year postgraduate bursary - the Harry Watson Memorial bursary - has been endowed for research into the history and landscape of Norwich and the first recipient will be announced shortly. Work is also progressing on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project to catalogue all medieval stained glass in Norfolk - the results of which will be accessible through a website, in a volume of the international series on glass Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, and in a popular book. The Sutermeister Lecture on 9 November (7 pm at Lecture Theatre 2, UEA) will be given by Tom Williamson on ‘Re-thinking the Medieval East Anglian Lanscape’ and the reasons for medieval East Anglia’s distinctive character. The JISC-funded Virtual Norfolk website, which makes freely available a large amount of archival material relating to pre-modern Norwich and Norfolk will shortly be re-launched <http://virtualnorfolk.uea.ac.uk>. As well as the 2,000 documents already available, the new site will include a large number of images and maps. A recent publication arising from a CEAS conference in September 2003 is Medieval East Anglia, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill (Boydell and Brewer, 2005; £45. ISBN 184383 151 1). Essays are arranged into five sections: the Landscape; the Urban Scene; Government and Politics; Religion; and Literary Culture. The CEAS and School of History Conference to be held at the UEA, 29-31 March 2007, will be on the theme of ‘Urban mentalities: becoming a town dweller in the medieval and early modern period’. Further details will be publicised closer to the time on the Centre’s website via: http://www.uea.ac.uk/his/.

4. MUSEUMS, ARCHIVES AND LOCAL STUDIES LIBRARIES

• Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section has again organised a series of free talks as part of the Archive Awareness Campaign: those still remaining are on 9 November (‘Sion College, its History and Archives’, Stephen Freeth, Keeper of Manuscripts); 29 November (‘Family Photographs’ Bring your own photos for dating and analysis with Audrey Linkman author of ‘The Expert Guide to Dating Victorian Family Photographs’); 6 December (‘Behind the scenes tour of the Manuscripts Section store and Conservation workshop); and 16 January (‘Going to Law in the Medieval City’, Penny Tucker). All events begin at 2 pm in the Whittington Room on the lower ground floor of Guildhall Library. Numbers are limited, so please book in advance by telephone 020 7332 1863/2.

• Guildhall Library Print Room’s current exhibition (continues to 29 December) is ‘Venture Abroad: Images from Guildhall Library’s Business Collections, c.1868-1929’. The photographs have been selected from the archives of the Borneo Company, Harrisons and Crosfield, the Bank of British West Africa, Guardian Assurance, Steel Brothers, and the Sun Fire Office. These companies were based in the City of London but were active all across the world. Taken primarily to illustrate global business activities, such as gold mining, rubber tapping and teak extraction, they also show a wide range of people and places. Admission is free and is open Monday-Saturday 9.30 am-5.00 pm). Details at: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhalllibrary. An illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is also available from the Guildhall Library Bookshop priced £3.00.

• Recent news from Guildhall Library’s manuscript section, including a report on progress on the ‘A Place in the Sun’ project (the online index to early 19th-century insurance policies in registers compiled by the Sun Fire Office), the recently catalogued ‘confidential reports’ of Lloyd’s of London, 1908-46 (GL Ms 36855), and Guildhall Library Bookshop, is detailed in the section’s electronic newsletter which is online at: http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/newsletter4.htm.

• Archives for London (AfL), the networking body for practitioners and users of London’s archives, is holding its first annual conference on 18 November 2006 at the Library of Freemasonry, Great Queen Street, London. The title is ‘Immoral, illegal and insubordinate: Londoners and the Law’ and speakers include: Drew Gray (Northampton), The Summary Courts of the City of London in the long eighteenth century; Paul Carter (TNA), Londoners and the Law, 1782-1850; Andrew Prescott (Sheffield), Uncovering secret societies and plots in nineteenth-century England; Maggie Bird (Metropolitan Police Archive), Illustrated History of Metropolitan Police Records; and Stefan Slater (Royal Holloway), Policing London’s West End, 1818-39. The cost, including refreshments and buffet lunch, is £20 for AfL members and £30 for non-members (includes AfL annual membership fee of £10). The deadline for bookings is 8 November - please contact Sarah Jane at London Metropolitan Archives (email: sarah.jane@cityoflondon.gov.uk ;tel: 020 7332 3881) to register.

• Archives for London organises a number of events throughout the year, including a series of free seminars held on, usually, the first Thursday of the month at 5.30 pm at London Metropolitan Archives. There will not be a November seminar but upcoming topics are: 11 January, ‘City of London Freedom papers and City Livery Companies’ (Elizabeth Scudder (LMA) and Philippa Smith (Guildhall Library)); 1 February, ‘Using digital cameras to take images of archives’ (Hugh Alexander, TNA); 1 March, ‘Charity records’(TBC); and 5 April ‘Hearth Tax Record in London’ (Colin Thomas and Peter Guillery, English Heritage). These seminars are open to all but advance booking is necessary – please contact Nicola Avery (email: Nicola.Avery@cityoflondon.gov.uk). Regular visits to Archives in and around London are also arranged for members. To become a member of AfL, contact Nicola Avery at LMA, 40 Northampton Road London EC1R 0HB.

• Among forthcoming events at London Metropolitan Archives are: House History Day (Saturday 25 November 10 am-4.30 pm), speakers include Nick Barratt and Colin Thoms; Using Online Family History Resources (Wednesday 10 January 2-3.30 pm); The Real Dick Whittington (18 January, 2-3 pm); London’s Clubs (Saturday 27 January 10:00-16:30); Family History in Parish Record (Thursday 15 February 14:00-15:00); Writing the Wrongs – 50 Years of Black British Publishing (Saturday 17 Feburary, 9 am-4.30 pm). Details of these, and booking information, is at: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/lma/newsflash.htm.

• The Bishopsgate Institute and the Raphael Samuel History Centre are co-hosting the launch of London: City of Disappearances, ed. by Iain Sinclair (Penguin Books) on Tuesday 31 October 2006 and The Lost World of British Communism, Raphael Samuel (Verso Books) on Friday 1 December 2006. Both events will take place at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH. Further details at: http://www.raphael-samuel.org.uk/Centre/events.htm.

• For those of you unfamiliar with Bishopsgate Library at the Bishopsgate Institute, it has been collecting contemporary library and archive material since its opening in 1895 and holds a variety of fascinating and valuable sources for the study of social, cultural and topographical history of London from the nineteenth century to the present day. Highlights include: London Collection comprising c45,000 books, pamphlets, maps, photographs and ephemera concerning the social, cultural and topographical history of London, with particular reference to the East End ; the Raphael Samuel collection, including research papers on London and the East End; oral history recordings; the London History Workshop collection - a photographic collection concerning the social and cultural history of London; and the Co-operative Movement Collection, including books, archives and pamphlets of the London Co-operative Society, Women’s Co-operative Guild and co-operation, both nationally and internationally, from the mid-nineteenth century to the modern day. The Institute offers free public access to these collections Monday to Friday, along with a comprehensive reprographics service and suitable finding aids. The Library has now completed conserving and cataloguing over 30 boxes of photographs relating to London with many showing how places such as Bishopsgate Ward and Spitalfields have changed over the years. The list is now available in the Library. Among other papers recently catalogued and available for consultation are those of William Rogers, rector of St Botolph’s Bishopsgate, social reformer and founding figure of the Institute, Charles Goss, one of the Institute’s first librarians, and George Howell, a former MP for North-East Bethnal Green. Cataloguing is also underway on the London Co-operative Society (LCS) archive, which comprises approximately 5,000 minute books and ledgers, 50 large boxes of papers and 30 large boxes of photographs. Upcoming talks at the Library are: Dickens on Film (Tues 7 November, 7-9 pm); and London for Tourists: the capital’s guidebooks from the Great Exhibition to Time out and beyond (Tues 21 November 7-9 pm). Both events are £6 (£5 concessions). Advance booking recommended. The Library is also holding a book sale on Sunday 3 December 11 am-4 pm, when a vast number of withdrawn reference works will be on sale at bargain prices. Details of the Library, its collections and events are available at http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk.

• Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre Annual Closure Week will be Monday 4 December to Saturday 9 December inclusive. The Centre’s current free exhibition is: King’s Cross: A tour in time (open 16 October 2006-4 February 2007). It illustrates the story of an area of London that is in the process of enormous change and features images from the popular book of the same name, written by local studies librarians Mark Aston and Lesley Marshall (priced £5.99, available from the Archives Centre). See: http://www.camden.gov.uk/localstudies for opening hours and other details.

• The Family Records Centre in Myddleton Street EC1, has organised a series of free talks on a variety of family history-related topics. The talks take place on Tuesday and Saturdays (to 5 December) at 2 pm. Tickets are issued on a first-come basis and cannot be pre-booked. The calendar of talks is at http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/extra/talks.htm.

• The British Records Association’s 2006 conference will be on ‘Archives in Conflict’ and be held at The Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 on 5 December. It will be followed by the British Records Association AGM and the Maurice Bond Memorial Lecture on ‘Drowning in a Sea of Paper: British Archives of Naval Warfare’ given by Professor Nicholas Rodger (University of Exeter). Informationis available at http://www.britishrecordsassociation.org.uk/Conference&Events_pages/war_conf.htm or email: britrecassoc@hotmail.com.

• The Wellcome Library is about to begin its move back into its refurbished building at 183 Euston Road. Between 23 October and the end of December Rare Books, Archives and Manuscripts, and Asian Collections will be moved, with Iconographic collections following early next year. The rest of the Library will move over the Easter period and will therefore be closed from 26 March to 16 April 2007. Details of the moves will be posted on the website: http://library.wellcome.ac.uk. Efforts will be made to maintain access to the collections as far as possible but readers are advised to check if they plan a visit.

• The City of Westminster Archives Centre’s current exhibition is ‘Flesh and Blood’ (until end of October). Using material drawn from 15 London institutions, the exhibition’s main themes are medical and health-related collections and records relating to individuals and families. It is on display in the Meeting Room at the Archives Centre at 10 St Ann’s Street SW1: http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/archives/events.cfm.

• The Museum of London’s new major exhibition is ‘Belonging: Voices of London’s Refugees’ (27 October 2006-25 February 2007). Drawing on 150 in-depth life story interviews with people from more than fifteen communities, the exhibition uses the interviews, photographs, objects, art and film to tell the personal stories of why refugees come to London, the challenges and barriers they face and the contributions they make to the city. The exhibition is accompanied by a full programme of free events between 29 October and 14 December. Details at http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Planned/Belonging.htm. Listings of other events taking place at the Museum of London and the Museum in Docklands are available at: http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Events/.

• Historical Royal Palaces’ adult education lectures and study days are led by resident experts, including archaeologists, curators, surveyors, gardeners and conservators. They offer a unique opportunity to gain a greater insight into the rich history and present-day workings of the palaces. At the time of writing places are still available for: The Medieval Tower (6 November 2006, 10.30 am-4 pm); and Prisoners of the Tower: (4 June 2007; 10.30 am-4 pm). Details at http://www.historicroyalpalaces.org/webcode/content.asp?ID=1316. Other course are: (at Kew Palace) The Hanoverians at Kew (23 April), and The Buildings of Royal Kew (18 June 2007); (at Hampton Court Palace) The Hampton Court Fire of 1986: Twenty Years On (23 November, 19:30-20:30); Hampton Court Palace through the ages (18, 25 January; 1, 8 15 February) and Henry VIII: Renaissance Prince (10 February). For further information or to make a booking, please contact the Historic Royal Palaces Education Administration Office on 0870 751 5190 or by email: hamptoncourteducation@hrp.org.uk. Full details of all courses are available at: http://www.hrp.org.uk.

5. ONLINE RESOURCES

• Since the last newsletter, there have been several new urban/London major additions to British History Online (see http://www.british-history.ac.uk). All four volumes of Daniel Lysons’s Environs of London (1792) have now been added; Ordnance Survey maps (Epoch 1, scale 1:2500) are now online for Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southampton, Chichester, Durham, Winchester and Worcester; 3 more volumes from the Survey of London (covering All Saints’ Poplar and Knightsbridge) are now live as are the first two volumes of Matthews’ Cardiff Records. Cardiff Records contain transcripts of the charters of the city, as well as extracts from records from The National Archives relating to Cardiff, and customs, judicial and Corporation records. Charters and Documents of Glasgow (1175-1649) contains a detailed narrative account of the constitutional evolution of the city and provides transcripts and abstracts of the 123 key charters and additional related material. These complement the Records of the Burgh for 1573-1690 which are also available on the site.

• A new edition of the ‘Internet for Historians’ online tutorial has been released in the Intute: Virtual Training Suite at: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/history. This is an interactive step-by-step guide created to help historians make the best use of Internet resources, and provides a survey of online resources useful for study and research, as well as advice on finding further resources and tips on planning effective search strategies.

• A 60-minute Argyle Square Sound Trail which takes the listener on a voyage of discovery around one of the most residential historic quarters of King’s Cross, is now available for download from the King’s Cross Voices Oral History Project website: http://www.kingscrossvoices.org.uk.

6. NEW PUBLICATIONS

• The latest issue of the London Journal (Vol 31 no. 1 (2006)) is a special issue on ‘Shopping Routes: Networks of Fashion Consumption in London’s West End 1945-1979’, guest-edited by David Gilbert. This is the first issue to be published by Maney Publishing and a list of contents is available on their website: http://www.maney.co.uk/journals/ldn.

• The London Record Society’s new volume, A woman in wartime London: the diary of Kathleen Tipper, 1941-1945, edited by Patricia and Robert Malcolmson (Vol. 41, 2006), will be launched at the Society’s AGM which will be held on 28 November at the Imperial War Museum. Copies of Vol. 41 are available to non-members at £20 + postage. To order, please contact the Hon. Secretary (email: Londonrecord.society@ntlworld.com). Details of the AGM and post-meeting talks on ‘London at War’ (Jerry White), Robert Malcolmson ‘The Mass-Observation Project’ and Patricia Malcolmson ‘Kathleen Tipper’s Diary’ (advance booking essential) are available on the LRS website: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/lrs/lrsannm.html.

• The Family and Local History Handbook, 10 has recently been published by Robert Blatchford Publishing (http://www.genealogical.co.uk; ISBN 978 0 9530297 9 2. 448pp). Priced at £12.99, it contains a wealth of information for those interested in family and local history including a number of articles ranging from starting a family history to areas of specific research as well as listings of over 5,000 useful addresses (libraries, societies, museums, etc).

• The British Association for Local History also publishes a range of handbooks for local historians, including Research and Writing History: a practical guide for Local historians (David Dymond)and Dates and Times: a handbook for local historians. These are available from bookshops and from http://www.phillimore.co.uk.

• London Buildings and Sites: A guide for researchers in Guildhall Library (Guildhall Library Publications, 2006) has just been published. The volume outlines the most useful sources for those researching the history of a building or site in London. While emphasis is given to material held at Guildhall Library and on sites within the square mile of the City, reference is also made to relevant records held elsewhere. A case study on a site in Crutched Firars aims to show the wealth of information that can be found about any street in London. Copies are available from Guildhall Library bookshop for £6.95 plus £2.50 p&p in the UK (http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/corporation/shop; email: bookshop@cityoflondon.gov.uk, Tel: 020 7332 1858).

• The IHR and The National Archives have just published the latest of their guides to records held at TNA. A Guide to the Naval Records in the National Archives, ed. by Randolph Cock and N A M Rodger (ISBN: 978 1 905165 16 2), aims to help researchers both to understand TNA’s naval records and to locate the information they require. It also covers records deposited in the National Maritime Museum and the Post Office Archives, as well as stray documents in the British Library, Cambridge University Library and the Bodleian Library. Priced £20 plus postage, the book is now available at the IHR bookshop (order online at http://www.history.ac.uk/bookshop/), and at the National Maritime Museum and TNA bookshops.

• The 2006 edition of Grants for History: a Guide to Funding is also now available from the IHR Bookshop (price £13.50 + postage). This guide provides the most up-to-date information about financial resources, both in the UK and overseas, for historical research activities: see http://www.history.ac.uk/bookshop/.

• Wartime St Pancras: a London borough defends itself is the latest book from the Camden History Society and was published in the summer. Originally written by Chief Air Raid Warden Charles Newbery in November 1945, it has been transcribed and annotated by historian Robin Woolven. Fully illustrated with previously unpublished contemporary photographs and examples of wartime ephemera. Priced £7.50 plus postage from Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre: <http://www.camden.gov.uk/localstudies>.

• The Nature of Cities: Culture, Landscape and Urban Sapce, edited by Andrew C. Isenberg. An exploration of the intersection of cities and the natural environment in New York, London, New Orleans, Venice, San Francisco and Seattle, from the late Renaissance to the present. It deals with such questions as racial and class conflicts in urban public spaces; the cultural construction and control of public spaces by economic and government powers; and the idealization of cities as apart from nature (224pp ISBN 1 58046 220 0, University of Rochester Press) Details: http://www.boydell.co.uk/80462200.HTM

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The information in this newsletter is provided in good faith, however the Centre for Metropolitan History cannot guarantee
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website: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh