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Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm Wednesday 10am - 4:30pm Thursday 10am - 7pm

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives

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Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, London.

Tower Hamlets' Local History Library and Archives covers the area of the present-day London Borough of Tower Hamlets; the original East End of London which, until 1965, comprised of the Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. If you are interested in a building in the borough, tracing your ancestors who lived here, doing a school or college project on some aspect of the borough or are just feeling nostalgic, we may well be able to help you.

01/04/2025

Happy birthday to us! The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is 60 years old today! 🥳 🎊 🎈

On 1 April 1965 the old Metropolitan Boroughs of Stepney, Poplar and Bethnal Green merged to form the borough we know and love as Tower Hamlets.

To mark the occasion Richard our Archives Manager and Annette one of our Archivists set up stall in the Council's Town Hall to showcase some material charting 60 eventful years and more! 🏛️

27/03/2025

Today we mark the 80th anniversary of the Hughes Mansions disaster, when 134 people were killed when a V2 rocket hit the buildings in Vallance Road, Stepney.

Many of the Hughes Mansions’ residents were Jewish, including the Veltman family who lived at number 49. Phyllis Veltman was only a week away from her 19th birthday when she was killed in the attack along with her mother Annie. Her father Morris, a tailor’s machinist, survived.

With thanks to the Cohen family, we now have in our collection the Veltman family archive, including Phyllis’ ration book, which shows stamps from local Jewish businesses, and the family's membership cards for local workers’ societies.

More information about the Veltman family archive can be found on our online catalogue https://orlo.uk/PVEL_TW7Nr Thanks to Nikita Frost for cataloguing this collection.

18/03/2025

The Legacy of the Brady Boys and Girls: Curator’s Tour and Film Screening
📅 Thursday 27th March 2025
🕰️ 5pm-8pm
🏛️ Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
🎟️ Tickets via https://orlo.uk/rdzkr

For over eighty years the Brady Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs provided community, friendship and mentoring to thousands of predominantly Jewish young people in the East End of London. It was a place where life-long relationships were made, where young people stepped out of underprivileged and often difficult circumstances and were supported to follow their dreams.

5-6pm Curators Susan Andrews and Anna Perceval will be offering a personalised tour of the exhibition.

6-8pm A screening of a short film 'We Are The Brady Girls’ based on the videoed oral histories of former Brady Club members, highlights the importance of youth work for the development and life chances of young people and offers vital lessons for how society provides opportunities for young people today. This will be followed by a screening of recently rediscovered and unseen original footage from the late 1950s - early 1960s.

Screenings will be followed by a Q&A with film-maker Susan Andrews, Emeritus Reader in Photography at London Metropolitan University and researcher Anna Perceval, Trustee of the Bradians Trust.

Tickets for this event are free, but strictly limited, so please book in advance.

14/03/2025

Closing event for Communities of Liberation Exhibition and Book launch!

Dr Montaz Marché will lead attendees through some of the stories and histories of African people rediscovered through the Communities of Liberation story. To highlight the rich history and explore a more intimate understanding of African presence in Tower Hamlets and their relationship to their environments throughout the early modern period.

The event is also a chance to see the publication for the first time and celebrate the last few days of the exhibition.

https://orlo.uk/Book_Here_dKVma

Image One : Map of parishes with locations of runaway people
Image Two : Dr Montaz Marché in the Tower Hamlets Archives Reading Room

07/03/2025

Join us for a Communities of Liberation Event!

Thursday 20 March, 6-8pm

Tower Hamlets, Town Hall
160 Whitechapel Road London E1 1BJ

This collage workshop, led by artist Holly Graham, will explore creative visual approaches to responding to archival material; drawing upon strategies such as Christina Sharpe’s ‘wake work’ and Saidiya Hartman’s ‘critical fabulation’. Holly will share reflections arising from working with Tower Hamlets Library & Archive research material with the Communities of Liberation Co-Producers, and in her previous work with archives documenting individuals from the African diaspora. Together we’ll use collage to explore visual approaches to amplify quiet histories and fill in gaps in collections.

https://orlo.uk/Book_Here_ORMd5

Image One : Co-producers with Holly during creative workshop
Image Two : Section of Visual art collage by Judith Bryan & Genova Messiah

05/03/2025

Exhibition on Now!

On Saturday we launch the exhibition for our long term project Communities of Liberation : African Peoples in Tower Hamlets 1567-1802. If you didn't get to catch us at the launch worry not as it's on until the end of March (see details below) and we have a full programme of Events throughout the month. https://orlo.uk/dbqUx

Exhibition Opening times: Mondays-Fridays 9am-5pm, 1-29 March 2025, at Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BJ

28/02/2025

Wondering what we get up to during a stocktake closure? Well, wonder no more...

In our first week we have been cleaning and reshelving library items to make room for more books. We've re-located artwork by Alison Marchant (amongst others) whilst stocktaking in our paintings collection store. We've started to re-package and check through listings of our museum collection item. For conservation reasons we are replacing old plastic packaging with acid free paper to protect textiles and paper items. Gloves, masks, overalls and 'Dot Cotton' dinner lady coats are our chosen attire for these dusty tasks!

In amongst all these tasks, we are also catching up on our admin duties as well as getting back to your email enquiries.

Image 1: Colleagues cleaning library bookshelves to make room for more in our beautiful reading room
Image 2: Alison Marchant work from our paintings store
Image 3: Colleagues separating and repackaging textile, paper, metal and wood items into separate boxes from our small museum collection
Image 4: Metal objects repackaged. Items include picker and shears used by silk weavers from workshop of Samuel Lane
Image 5: Children's lace bonnet circa 1800-90s

25/02/2025

If yesterday's big exhibition announcement wasn't enough, we have another exhibition about to be installed at the archive on Bancroft Road!

The Brady Clubs: A Legacy for the Future

The Brady Clubs: A Legacy for the Future is an immersive exhibition that explores the immense impact of youth provision on both the individuals concerned and society at large. The Brady Club’s legacy stands as testament to the profound impact such initiatives can have and serves as an appeal to government, policymakers, community leaders, and the public to recognise the indispensable role of youth services in shaping positive life trajectories. Throughout the exhibition, visitors will be given the opportunity to engage with the Brady Club experience: through digital links to podcasts and stories, by listening to music, playing games, dressing up, and sitting in the canteen environment to read youth-generated Club magazines and examine Brady Club Holiday albums. The exhibition not only reflects on the past but also ignites a conversation about the present and future.

This timely exhibition is an invitation to reflect on the lessons of the past and present, and raise our voices to advocate for a future where every young person has access to the resources they need to thrive.

Tickets for this event are free, but strictly limited, so please book in advance. Only ticket holders will be admitted.

📅 Thursday 13th March 2025
🕰️ 6pm-8pm
🏛️ Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archive, 277 Bancroft Road, Stepney E1 4DQ
🎟️ Please book via link https://orlo.uk/2WIHq

24/02/2025

Communities of Liberation Exhibition & launch
📅 Saturday 1 - 29 March 2025
⏰ 9am-6.30pm
🏛️ Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BJ

We invite you to discover untold stories of Black lives 300 years ago in London’s East End. Communities of Liberation is a new public exhibition bringing to light Black experiences in Tower Hamlets during the transatlantic Slave Trade.

The exhibition is based on the research and creative work of six local residents who have used Tower Hamlets' archive collections to tell stories of the lives of Africans who lived in the East End between 1567 and 1802. These include...

o Sabinah, transported from Jamaica, who found refuge in Whitechapel
o Pompey, a trumpet player in Bethnal Green
o Ann, a “Negro maid” in Limehouse who escaped from her captor

The exhibition features artwork, poetry, podcasts, and creative writing, as well as the archival sources which inspired the Co-Producers.

Researched and created by the Communities of Liberation team, in collaboration with Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives. Supported by Historic England and Tower Hamlets Council.

The exhibition will be on show between 1 - 29 March in the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall, located between reception and the Grocers Wing. It will be open to the public Monday to Friday, 9am to 6.30pm.

🚩 All are welcome at the launch event which takes place on:
🕰️ Saturday 1 March at 2.00pm.
🎟️ Please book your free place on Eventbrite https://orlo.uk/hdlzI

23/02/2025

What an incredible closing event for Cockney Rebels exhibition on Thursday evening!

A HUGE thank you to our hosts .dein and Alan Gilbey, who were joined by our special guests David Shoben of the legendary Paul for Music record shop on Cambridge Heath Road (circa 1954-2005), community worker and music journalist Nick Friday, Ansar Ullah of Joi Bangla Banned, community organiser and director of Swadhinata Trust, and our headliners none other than the amazing acapella group the MINT JULEPS!!!

A big thank you to our packed house of wonderful audience members!

17/02/2025

🚨 Temporary closure announcement! 🚨

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives will be closed between 24 February - 7 March 2025 so that staff can carry out stocktaking work, and our new exhibition can be installed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

15/02/2025

Women's History event!! (and just so happens to be very close to St Patrick's Day 🍀 🇮🇪 )

500 Years of Irish women in Tower Hamlets

📅 Saturday 15 March
⏰ 2.00-4.00pm
🏛️ Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, 277 Bancroft Road, Stepney, London E1 4QD
🎟️ Book https://orlo.uk/kIoEJ

In the long history of London, the city’s oldest and largest foreign presence comprised people born in Ireland and those of Irish descent (until the late nineteenth century). However, what’s all too often overlooked is that this history is HERstory too.

Breda Corish will be exploring the women of Ireland - Mná na hÉireann - in Tower Hamlets. A canter through five hundred years of herstory will take us from an Irish noblewoman living in the sixteenth-century Tower of London to the twentieth-century daughter of Irish immigrant workers on the Isle of Dogs, meeting lodging-house keepers, Famine refugees, nuns, strike leaders, suffragettes and local politicians along the way.

11/02/2025

🚨 JOB ALERT!🚨

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives are looking to recruit a full time, fixed term (12 month) Local History Officer (Access & Collections). Salary £35,814 - £37,437, closing date 3 March 2025. Apply here: https://orlo.uk/LHOAC_XrKuR

Key responsibilities include:

💡 Providing a public-facing enquiry and document production service to users of Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, in person and remotely

💡 Preparing the archive and local history library collections for relocation prior to building works

28/01/2025

COCKNEY REVELS

Don’t miss our special evening opening for a last chance to rock around the smash-hit exhibition COCKNEY REBELS – Popular music in Tower Hamlets 1624-2003.

As well as over a hundred rare items from our collection on display, there will be…

The Vinyl Lounge!
Hear informal chats with some of the voices behind East End music, hosted by social historian and BBC broadcaster Alan Dein.

A Poptastic quiz!
Can you find the answers in pictures at our exhibition, or win a ’Name That Tune’ spot prize?

And… the MINT JULEPS!
For one night only these local legends reform to send you singing acapella into the night.

📅 Thursday 20 February
⏰ 6.30 – 8pm
🎟️ Tickets are for this unique event are free, but strictly limited, so please book in advance and be at the door at 6.30pm to ensure entry.
🔗 https://orlo.uk/O3xrg

16/01/2025

Our next Cockney Rebels event is coming soon...

Secrets from the Cockney Yiddish Music Hall

Songs performed on the London Yiddish stage at the turn of the twentieth century, tell of the experiences of immigration from a grassroots perspective. Funny and satirical, edgy, and surprising, the lyrics tell of a community in transition, battling with religious, emotional and ideological hurdles as women and men integrated into British life. Vivi Lachs will spill the secrets of the Yiddish halls in an entertaining talk with song. Expect a laugh, a tear, and an all-join-in.

No Yiddish knowledge necessary.

Vivi Lachs is a historian of the Jewish East End, a research fellow at Queen Mary University and Yiddish performer. Her books include Whitechapel Noise and London Yiddishtown. She founded the Great Yiddish Parade, is the vice chair of the Yiddish Café Trust and leads tours of the Yiddish East End. She sings, records and composes with the bands Klezmer Klub and Katsha’nes.

📅 Thursday 13 February
⏰ 6.00pm-7.30pm
🎟️ FREE but please book via this link https://orlo.uk/BD30a

16/01/2025

Coming soon…

Tower Hamlets heritage project “Communities of Liberation” is preparing its public reveal: a publication, new web content and an exhibition launching at Tower Hamlets Town Hall…

Our collections gives us a glimpse into the lives of and experiences of Black peoples’ in the borough in the 1700s. For example, the picture shows the Baptism record of Mary Mason in 1751, from St George in the East church parish record
Ref No. L/SGE/B/1/5

08/01/2025

New Dates!
Join us for Parent/Carer & under 5s Stay & Play Session 10 Jan & 7 Feb. Come have a cuppa, and look through a collection of unique photographs, books, maps and more on the historical East End. Toys are available for children aged 0-5 years this is a FREE drop in session 10- 11:30am at our Local History Library & Archives on Bancroft Rd.

Address

277 Bancroft Road
London
E14DQ

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 4:30pm
Thursday	10am - 7pm

Website

http://www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history

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Videos

Podcast East End History in An Object – Communities of Liberation Edition

New Podcast! East End History in An Object – Communities of Liberation Edition Listen to the new podcast looking at unique collections evidencing of people of African Heritage living in the East End over 230 years ago. Communities of Liberation is a historical research and public art project which aims to increase awareness of the long history of the African presence in the borough of Tower Hamlets, by focusing specifically on excavating and sharing stories of individuals who lived here in the 17th and 18th centuries. https://shows.acast.com/east-end-history-in-an-object-communities-of-liberation-edit/episodes/66bde5e0844d445153684018

Oral History with Joy Hastings

We have been busy recording oral history interviews of individuals that have lived and worked in the borough. Recently catalogued interview from Joy Hastings, Infant Feeding Manager & Community Midwife recalling her work supporting mothers and babies. You can listen to Joy’s full oral history recording in our Reading Room or search the description on our catalogue. Ref. O/IND/6. Also available on YouTube https://orlo.uk/YouTube_4QPfs we have the recording of past online event with Joy discussing her work in ‘Exploring Infant Feeding – Past & Present’. Image - Infant Feeding related material deposited by Joy #womenshistorymonth #IWD2024

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives

01/04/2025

27/03/2025

18/03/2025

14/03/2025

07/03/2025

05/03/2025

28/02/2025

25/02/2025

24/02/2025

23/02/2025

17/02/2025

15/02/2025

11/02/2025

28/01/2025

16/01/2025

16/01/2025

08/01/2025

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Opening Hours

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Videos

Podcast East End History in An Object – Communities of Liberation Edition

Oral History with Joy Hastings

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