Life stories and oral history
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The Museum of London has been collecting the memories of Londoners since the 1980s.
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The Museum oral history collection now contains more than 5000 hours of recorded life story interviews with a wide variety of people who have lived and worked in London and who talk about their lives and everyday experiences. In this way the Museum is building up a detailed picture of what it was like to be a Londoner during the 20th century and now into the 21st century.
There are three main parts to the collection:
Interviews recorded as part of the Museum’s ongoing oral history collecting programme or for particular Museum projects. Major projects previously undertaken include 'The Peopling of London', focusing on immigration and London's multicultural character. For more information about the oral history collection and previous projects, please visit the London’s Voices section.
200 interviews recorded during the 1980s and largely covering trade and manufacturing, with particular focus on London’s docks.
3000 hours of taped interviews recorded by the London History Workshop Centre between 1982 and 1990. This includes interviews by famous History Workshop historians such as Raphael Samuel and Jerry White. It also includes all the audio interviews made by London Weekend Television for its series 'The Making of Modern London'.
Please note
The Museum of London is undergoing a huge redevelopment and the galleries stop at 1666, with the exception of objects in temporary exhibitions. Objects will still be available for individual study by appointment: please apply to the Later London history department on 020 7814 5750.