London and Urban News and events
Temporary closure of Bancroft Library
Bancroft Library, the home of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, is due to close for building works from Monday 10 September. It is expected that the building will reopen in early 2013. A limited remote enquiry service for THLHLA will operate via phone (020 7364 1290) and email (localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk) during the closure.
Exhibition: After You’ve Gone : East End Shopfronts, 1988
17 May-12 July 2012 | Tower Hamlets Local History & Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, London E1 4DQ
Alan Dein's photographs of East End shopfronts were taken in 1988 when many Tower Hamlets streets were on the verge of dereliction. Alan, an oral historian and Radio 4 broadcaster, lived in Stepney at the time and decided to capture the diminishing, decaying local shops on film, many of them relics of the area’s once flourishing Jewish community. These images, exhibited for the first time, are contextualised by archival material from the local history library's collections and contemporary images of the buildings today. See website for details.
Archives for London Seminar: Archives for the Napoleonic Wars at the National Army and Beyond
Thursday 14 June 2012 at 6 pm | London Metropolitan Archives - Huntley Room, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB
Dr Alastair Massie, expert on the Crimean War and Head of Archives at the National Army Museum, will give an overview of the rich sources held in the UK that shed light on the Napoleanic wars. Advance booking is essential. Contact Jeff.Gerhardt@cityoflondon.gov.uk (tel: 020 7332 3879). Free to AfL members, non-members £5. Details
Website: Sporting Endeavours: celebrating sport in London's archives
Funded by the Heritage Lottery fund, Archives for London has worked with archives to showcase historic documents, press cuttings, visual material and ephemera relating to the 1908 and 1948 Olympic Games and the 1948 Paralympics. The Winning Endeavours website helps people browse and search newly digitized original sources for leisure and commercial interests. See website.
Book: Whitechapel, 1600-1800: A social history of an early-modern London inner suburb (Derek Morris)
This new book by Derek Morris, published by the East London History Society, features the rich and the poor, the churches and chapels, criminals, merchants, the nurseries, the sugar refiners, brewers, the hay market, the militia and the London Hospital of this east London suburb in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. £12.60 (plus p&p). Further details and order form on the East London History Society website.
Podcast (The National Archives): The Metropolitan Police: an introduction to records of service 1829-1958
This talk by Chris Heather provides a basic outline of the surviving records of service for Metropolitan Police officers, with examples from the records, and an overview of the origins of the service. Podcast link
Exploring 20th-Century London
A new website bringing together the 20th-century collections of 12 London museums
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. Website
London Metropolitan Archives - new opening times
From 14 November 2011, London Metropolitan Archives will be open: Monday 9.30am - 4.45pm; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9.30am - 7.30pm; Friday Closed. The Archives will also be open on the following Saturdays (from 9.30 am - 4.45 pm) in 2012: 14 April, 12 May, 9 June, 14 July, 8 September, 13 October and 8 December. Full information is available on the LMA website.
Wandsworth Historical Society: Wandsworth Historian Digital Archive (1971-2011)
The Wandsworth Historical Society has digitised the entire 40-year run of its popular journal, Wandsworth Historian and made it available in the form of a searchable DVD. The Wandsworth Historian Digital Archive 1971-2011 is available at £5.00 plus £1.50 postage from WHS, 119 Heythorp Street, London SW18 5BT. Cheques payable to 'Wandsworth Historical Society'. Further details.
