The London Archives

30/09/2025

Planning your first trip to our archives?

We're a five minute walk from Farringdon station! Watch this short video to get your bearings.

24/09/2025

Escape to Epping Forest, right here in our archives! 🌳

Get hands-on with the history of London's largest open space at our free drop-in event. Explore original maps, vintage photos, and fascinating documents that tell the story of this ancient woodland.

All tickets are FREE.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archives-on-show-epping-forest-tickets-1595749613049?aff=oddtdtcreator

23/09/2025

What made London a world-leading city? 📈

Join us for an expert talk by Professor Patrick Wallis exploring the vital role of apprentices in London's history. See the original documents up close!

Limited tickets available.
Book here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/apprenticeship-and-the-rise-of-london-1500-1800-tickets-1602113337119?aff=oddtdtcreator

22/09/2025

Think you're having a bad start to your week?
Spare a thought for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. 😬

On this day in 1529, the most powerful man in England (besides the King, of course) had his career spectacularly implode. As Lord Chancellor, Wolsey was Henry VIII's right-hand man, living a life of immense wealth and influence.

His main task by 1529 had been to settle the King's 'Great Matter': securing the King an annulment from Catherine of Aragon. When he failed, his fall from grace was swift and brutal. He was stripped of his office, charged with treason, and forced to surrender the Great Seal of his office.

But Henry VIII didn't just remove Wolsey from his job; he wanted his house, too! 🏰

Wolsey’s magnificent London residence, York Place, was promptly confiscated by the King. Henry liked it so much he renamed it the Palace of Whitehall and made it his own principal home.

📷 Our first image is an engraving made after Wolsey death (natural causes, allegedly) from our collections.

📷 Our second and third images, a detail from our incredible 'Civitas Londinum' map, shows the palace right on the Thames. In Tudor London, power, politics, and property were often connected.

Our Civitas Londinum map is on display until 6 October. See it in all it's glory while you can!

18/09/2025

Marginalia...
Ornate H's...
Indeterminate beasts...
Snails with ears....
Declarations of love for Elizabeth I....

This Churchwarden's account book from the 1570s has it all.

These excerpts come from a volume from St Botolph Aldgate church, containing rental of parish estates with list of parishioners who lent money for their purchase and collectors and renters accounts in respect of lands given to the use of the poor of the parish 1559-1599.

Curate Robert Heas, also clearly used these working financial documents to practice his calligraphy and illustration skills. Many of the pages or covered in these beautiful, and sometimes unsettling, mid-Tudor doodles.

Order up the full volume yourself at The London Archives!
Catalogue reference: P69/BOT2/B/012/MS09235/001

Apologies to any estate agents.

16/09/2025

This week 85 years ago, the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above London and the south of England. RAF fighter pilots began to start to turn the tide, inflicting more loses to German sorties than they received overall. However, many bombs still found their way onto the streets of London causing death, destruction and fear.

This photo was taken by City of London police officers Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs later in the aerial campaign in 1941. It shows a building on Queen Victoria Street collapsing in flames after German bombing.

Visit our two FREE exhibitions 'London in the Second World War' either at The London Archives in Clerkenwell or outside in the centre of the City on Peter's Hill in view of St Paul's.
https://www.thelondonarchives.org/visit-us/exhibitions/london-in-the-second-world-war

15/09/2025

The Magic Lantern is back! We cant wait to see everyone there! You wont want to miss out on this spectacular event

We are currently offering early bird tickets at a discounted price (only available until until 11:59pm on 16 September 2025)

Don't miss out! Book tickets now >> https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/magic-lantern-show-and-exhibition-late-view-tickets-1616805291149?msockid=39422fc037e86957088739fe36226808

12/09/2025

Next month we are hosting another The First Archive We Knew workshop, hosted by Cassia Clarke!

The workshop is beginner-friendly and designed to introduce you to the fundamentals of preserving personal photographs 📸

🕐 12:30-4pm
📆 11th October
🎟️ https://buff.ly/iu2CUDt

10/09/2025

, the daddy of London maps?

Well I think so, and its certainly one of the oldest maps in our collection. It is currently on show in all it's 6 feet(ish) of glory as part of our in London display

Sheet 8 showing the southern part of the City and Southbank

📷 LPA 346649

Civitas Londinum, the 'Agas' map, or the woodcut map shows London in the 1560s, and was printed from woodcut blocks that date from the 1630s. The whole map is made up of 10 sheets.

Sheet 1 showing the Stuart coat of arms, and women drying laundry near St Martin's Lane

📷 LPA 346464

There are only two other prints of the woodcut blocks, one held at the Pepys Library at Magdalen College, Cambridge, and the other at The National Archives at Kew

Sheet 10 showing the Tower of London, London Bridge and Southwark

📷 LPA 346471

, there is a fully interactive version of the map where you can click on buildings, streets and churches available on The Map of Early Modern London

📷 4/6

It takes three of our conservators to hang the map safely and correctly in our public rooms!

Our Shakespeare in London display is free and open until 2nd October!



https://buff.ly/BG59csM

🧵 6/6

09/09/2025

Our next is on London's Militia!

Here is a preview of one our fantastic staff members talking about London's earliest muster rolls 📜

🕐 1pm and 2pm
📆 Friday 12th September
📍 The London Archives
Get your tickets below 👇

https://buff.ly/Rqx3nfT

08/09/2025

We are open for this weekend and you can still get tickets for our 1pm Behind The Scenes Tour!

Have you always wondered how we store our 100km of material? Book your ticket below to find out... 👇

Discover the world of a modern archive with behind-the scenes tours that takes you to places not usually open to the public.

07/09/2025

Brixton Windmill was built in 1816, and still grinds flour today. It is Grade II* Listed, and some of its buildings were demolished so that Windmill Park could be created in the 1960's. It's visible on part of this map from our Folded Maps collection from 1863, which you can find on The London Picture Archive.

https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/