The Centre for the History of People, Place and Community fosters engaged, innovative research into placed histories across all regions and periods.
Page
Layers of London
Layers of London is a ground-breaking crowd-sourced mapping project that charts the rich layers of London's past.
About Layers of London
Layers of London is a map-based history website developed by the Institute of Historical Research. Users can access free historic maps of London and contribute stories, memories and histories to create a social history resource about their area.
Layers of London brings together, for the first time, a really important collection of digitised historic maps, photos and crowd-sources histories provided by the public and key partners across London.
Our partners include: the British Library, The London Archives, Historic England, The National Archives, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and a wide range of national and local archives, institutions, community groups and individuals.
Layers of London has benefited from funding from a number of organisations and donors. In particular, the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded funding totalling £1.03M for the development and delivery phases of the project between 2016 and 2020. Matched funding was provided by the Anita McConnell legacy via the IHR Trust, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. We are also hugely grateful to our many partners and supporters for their non-cash contributions in the form of volunteer and staff time, room hire and other resources.
Layers of London maps
The Layers of London site charts the history of the metropolis through 16 interactive maps ranging from the 1520s to the present day.
Find or create a collection
Add historical content to Layers of London, or explore existing record collections.
