Aldermanbury, London, EC2V 7HH
The original Library at Guildhall was founded in the 1420s under
the terms of the will of Richard Whittington. Today, it is a major
public reference library which specialises in the history of
London, especially the City, as well as having other significant
collections. The collections held at Guildhall Library are
designated as national and international importance.
You are welcome to use the collections in person or you can contact
us by post, fax, email or telephone. There are no formalities or
registration requirements although we suggest you bring some form
of identification (eg driving licence, passport, library or record
office card) in case you wish to view some of our rarer items.
Staff are pleased to assist in supplying information and in
identifying and interpreting sources. This help is available
without charge although for more extensive research we recommend
that you use our fee-based service,
Focus Research in the City, or employ the services of a
professional researcher.
London
history
The Library specialises in the history of the City of London
(the Square Mile), but also collects material on the rest of
Greater London. From breweries to football clubs, Mayfair madams to
Jack the Ripper, we may have a book, pamphlet or periodical article
on any aspect of London life that interests you.
Local history
Our collections are not restricted to London but cover the whole
of the British Isles. In addition to complete sets of the Victoria
County History of England volumes and Nikolaus Pevsner's Buildings
of England, we have an excellent collection of county, town and
village histories. We also take the journals and other publications
of many local history and archaeological societies.
Family history
If your interest is in family history, we may be able to help in
tracing your ancestors. Although our primary sources, such as the
parish registers held in the Manuscripts section, relate mainly to
the 'square mile' of the City, we hold a wide range of useful
secondary sources. These include family history society journals
and other publications, printed parish register transcripts,
Burke's and Debrett's peerage and landed gentry publications,
directories of professions (eg Army List, Navy List, Air Force
List, Crockford's Clerical Directory, Law List, Medical Directory),
printed registers of public schools and universities and the London
Gazette. We also have an extensive collection of trade and
telephone directories for the whole of the British Isles, the
International Genealogical Index for the British Isles on both
microfiche and CD-ROM and the 1881 census surname index. Useful
CD-ROMS include Palmer's Index to the Times, 1790-1905 and the
Official Index to the Times, 1906-1980.
Click on the list below to download leaflets
Apprenticeship
records (184kb)
Boyds marriage
index (196kb)
Census material (203kb)
Occupational listings (209kb)
London directories (777kb)
Sources for Biographical (196kb)
Trade directories (184kb)
Sources for London
Criminals (241kb)
London Gazette (208kb)
For more about family history visit
London Metropolitan Archives.
English law
Our files of English law reports are the most comprehensive
likely to be found outside a specialist library. We also hold
Halsbury's Laws of England, Halsbury's Statutes of England,
Halsbury's Statutory Instruments, Sweet and Maxwell's Current Law
and the Digest. Please note that we are not a law library and do
not stock up-to-date legal textbooks.
Law reports held at Guildhall
Library (213kb)
Law collections at Guildhall
Library (201kb)
Current law reports (201kb)
Parliamentary
Our extensive collections include debates and journals of the
House of Commons and House of Lords, House of Commons papers from
1801 onwards, public and local statutes and statutory instruments.
We have a complete set of parliamentary debates (Hansard) from
1803. Some parliamentary material is also available on CD-ROM.
Following a bill through
Parliament (213kb)
Parliamentary resources (220kb)
Wine and food
The following collections are held by Guildhall Library: The
André Simon collection, the library of the International Wine and
Food Society, the Elizabeth David Collection and the
Institute of Masters of
Wine Library. In addition to these specialist gastronomic
collections, we hold many related works covering the history of
cookery, brewing, agriculture and domestic science.
Wine and food collections (196kb)
Wine lists (232kb)
Clocks and
clockmakers
Guildhall Library houses the libraries of the Clockmakers'
Company and the Antiquarian Horological Society. These provide both
technical details of clocks and watches and biographical
information on their makers. The records of the Clockmakers'
Company are held by the Manuscripts section. The
Clockmakers' Museum, also within the Guildhall Library
building, houses a unique exhibition tracing the development of
clocks and watches through the centuries.
Clock and watchmakers (216kb)
Business history
The City's position as a financial centre is reflected in our
business history collection. Printed material deposited here by the
Stock Exchange includes loan and company prospectuses from 1824 to
1964 and annual reports of quoted companies from 1880-1965. (Please
note that the latter are housed in an outstore and require a
minimum of 48 hours notice to obtain.) Historical files of
commercial periodicals and statistical series are also available.
Current commercial information is available at the
City Business Library.
Brewery history resources (200kb)
Business history resources (218kb)
Exchange rates at Guildhall Library
(201kb)
Share prices indexes (200kb)
Marine history
A major collection of marine material has been deposited with us
by Lloyd's of London, and this is especially useful for tracing
information on merchant vessels and shipping casualties. Click
on the following link to search the
Index to
Lloyd's List Marine News 1740-1837A
We do not hold any information on ordinary merchant seamen - for
this you should contact either the Registry of Shipping and Seamen
at Cardiff or the National Archives. The latter also holds records
of the Royal Navy and its personnel. There are no photographs or
other illustrations in the Lloyd's marine collection - for these
you should contact the National Maritime Museum. However, we do
purchase many related works on merchant fleets and shipping
companies, shipbuilders, disasters at sea (including, of course,
the Titanic), and all things maritime. Click on the list below to
download leaflets.
Casualty returns (199kb)
Immigration records in Australia and New
Zealand (199kb)
Immigration records in North America
(200kb)
Lloyds List indexes (196kb)
Marine sources (221kb)
Passenger and crew lists (201kb)
RMS Titanic (196kb)
Shipping loss information (201kb)
Shipping records of ownership and
salvage (192kb)
Voyage Record Cards (204kb)
VRC abbreviations (198kb)
Useful addresses (194kb)
Other information available
Guides and handlists for
sale (193kb)
Leaflets available from Guildhall
Library (199kb)
Electronic resources at Guildhall
Library (199kb)
Other
specialist collections
The Gardeners' Company collection (historic books on gardening),
The Fletchers' Company collection (books on archery), the Gresham
College collection (17th and 18th century music and early travel
and exploration), the Cock Collection (material on Sir Thomas
More), the Charles Lamb Society collection, the Chapman Bequest
(19th century plays), the Hamilton Bequest (18th and 19th century
plays), the Pepys Collection (Samuel Pepys) and a collection of
18th, 19th and 20th century books on shorthand.
Manuscripts
Following the reorganisation of Guildhall Library, most of the
archive and manuscript collections and archive services for the
City of London are now concentrated at London Metropolitan Archives
(LMA) in Clerkenwell, a mile north east of Guildhall Library. At
LMA there is the full range of consultation facilities,
conservation support, reprographics services and spacious areas for
research and study. We anticipate that the vast majority of
archives will now be consulted at
LMA
A few important archives will continue to be housed and
consulted at Guildhall Library. The key collections are:
- The Stock Exchange archives and printed collections
- Lloyd’s of London archives and printed collections (except the
Lloyd's Captains' Registers, which remain at LMA)
- St Paul’s Cathedral archives (except microfilmed parish and
probate records, and marriage licences, which remain at LMA)
- Christ’s Hospital archives
- The City of London Livery Company archives
Further information about consulting archives at Guildhall Library
is available.
We are working to harmonise information on our website. For the
moment, please use the Guildhall Manuscripts website for detailed
advice about all the former Guildhall Library Manuscripts
collections, including access to the list of livery company
membership records and to the indexes of Lloyd’s Captains
Registers.
We are in the process of converting all the City’s archive
catalogues into one dataset available through LMA's
online
catalogue. Until the data has been fully uploaded, you can
continue to use the
library catalogue for access to Guildhall Manuscripts
catalogues.
Print Room
The Guildhall Library Print Room has now closed. The
collection has moved to London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), 40
Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB.
The telephone number for Prints, Maps and Drawings enquiries is
020 7332 3820 and the email address enquiries is
ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
A prime source of historic pictures and maps of Greater
London, the collections are widely used by picture
researchers, architectural historians, family historians and art
historians and include:
- Prints and drawings of London life and architecture from the
15th century to the present
- Photographs of London streets and buildings from the 1850s to
the present
- Panoramas
- Portraits
- Satirical prints
- London maps from the 16th century to the present (including
historic and modern Ordnance Survey large scale plans)
- Noble Collection of cuttings and ephemera (80,000 items)
- Norman Collection on London taverns and coffee houses
- Fillinham Collection on London pleasure gardens
- City of London banquet menus and invitations
- St Paul's Cathedral Print Collection (including many of Wren's
original drawings for the cathedral)
- London trade cards and bill-heads
- London theatre bills and programmes
- Chadwyck-Healey Collection of watercolours (late 19th
century)
- Wakefield Collection of prints and drawings
- E W Cooke drawings of Old London Bridge
- Penton Collection of drawings of City churches (early 20th
century)
- Mathews Collection of watercolours of war damage in the
City
- Society for Photographing Relics of Old London (photos, late
19th century)
- Goad Fire Insurance maps
There are also collections which do not relate specifically to
London, eg:
- Willshire Collection of Old Master Prints
- Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards collection of
historic playing cards
- Knaster Collection of booksellers' labels
- Bookplate collection
- Old Ordnance Survey maps of the Home Counties (6 inch
scale)
- Geological maps of Britain
- County maps (17th to 19th century)
Catalogues
Most of the Print Room's collections are included on the
library's text-only computer catalogue. About 26,000 prints,
maps and drawings are now included on
COLLAGE, an image database, which
enables the public to search the collections by artist, subject,
date and medium and to view items instantly at high resolution on
screen.