Introducing our local history talks, exhibitions, articles and presentations
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre normally offers a full programme of talks, events and exhibitions relating to Camden history.
We can email you regular information about our forthcoming events if you join our mailing list. If you would like to do so, email us at: [email protected]
You'll also find a range of recordings, videos, podcasts, articles and exhibitions relating to Camden's history in this section of our webpage.
We'll add more material as soon as it is available, so please keep visiting these pages.
The largest daily total rainfall ever recorded in London followed a thunderstorm in the northwest of the capital on the evening of the 14 August 1975 when 6.72 inches of rain fell in Hampstead. Half a century on, eye-witness testimonies are leaving the collective memory, but our speaker, Lester Hillman, was there at the time. Lester was involved in Camden Council’s award-winning water amenity projects of 1975 and in subsequent large-scale infrastructure engineering works. In this talk, he explores the story of the famous storm and its aftermath.
Tuesday 15 July 2025 at 6pm
Camden Local Studies & Archives Centre 2nd Floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA
Admission Free
Sound clips and talks
Black Teacher – The Story of Beryl Gilroy
Darla Jane Gilroy, tells the story of her mother, Beryl Gilroy, pioneering teacher, writer, psychotherapist and Camden’s first black headteacher, drawing on her unique memoir, “Black Teacher”. Darla Jane Gilroy is Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Fashion Enterprise at Central Saint Martins UAL. This is a recording of a talk given for Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre on 19 April 2022.
Venerable Mother Magdalen, A Pioneering Nurse and Religious Sister in Camden
Part one – Paul Shaw, SMG Central Congregational Archivist, talks about Mother Magdalen, the culture of Tractarianism, and the growth of Anglican Religious Sisterhoods in Victorian Camden.
Part two – Paul Shaw, SMG Central Congregational Archivist, talks about Mother Magdalen, the founding of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God, and the work of the SMG Sisters in Camden.
Rabindranath Tagore – A Poet of the World in Camden
The Tagore Centre UK celebrate the Bengali literary giant Rabindranath Tagore with readings from his works, recitals of his songs, and talks about his life, including his time living in the Vale of Health, Camden. Poet, novelist,composer, singer, philosopher and educationalist, he became in 1913 the first non-European writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Kevin Brown, author of Passage to the World: the Emigrant Experience 1807-1940, talks about St Pancras teenager Joseph Sam’s 1874 voyage to Melbourne on the Northumberland and his diary of his travels, revealing a microcosm of snobbery and class distinction as perceived by this clerk.
Commonwealth Naval Hospitals – Ely House and the Savoy Hospital
Kevin Brown, medical and naval historian, talks about the use of Ely House in Holborn as a naval hospital from 1653 to 1660 as well as the similar use of the Savoy Hospital in Westminster.
Kevin Brown, author of Fighting Fit: Health, Medicine and War in the Twentieth Century, talks about the Endell Street Hospital, the military hospital in Holborn run by women in World War One.
Kevin Brown, author of Fighting Fit: Health, Medicine and War in the Twentieth Century, talks about how the people of Camden stayed healthy during the London Blitz that started 80 years ago in September 1940. He gave a talk on a similar subject at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre in 2009 marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the war
Kevin Brown, author of Fittest of the Fit: Health and Morale in the Royal Navy 1939-1945, is a very familiar speaker at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre. The Centre’s collections include newspaper articles and photos from the Holborn Warships Week in 1942..
Tudor Allen, Archivist at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, talks about the Hampstead Workhouse Account Book 1734-39, one of the items in the collections of Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre.
An illustrated talk by Camden tour guide Richard Cohen, exploring Camden’s rich LGBT heritage including Victorian cross-dressers, the Bloomsbury Group, London’s only LGBT bookshop, Kenneth Williams and the first same-sex weddings at Camden Town Hall
On the first of July 2022 a mural was unveiled commemorating the life of Dr Beryl Gilroy, Camden’s first black headteacher and the second to be appointed in London. This milestone was achieved by Gilroy when she became headteacher of Beckford School in Dornfell Street in 1969. The new mural is located outside the school, today known as West Hampstead Primary School. The mural by artist Fipsi Seilern was commissioned in 2018 by City Hall and Tate Collective as part of the Mayor of London’s #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign. A short film of the unveiling was made by Jack Arts - Instagram: @jack__arts Twitter: @Jack__Arts LinkedIn: Jack Arts - which includes a commentary by Gilroy’s daughter, Darla Jane Gilroy, Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Fashion Enterprise at Central Saint Martins UAL. The film can be viewed here.
The Tagore Centre UK celebrate the Bengali literary giant Rabindranath Tagore with readings from his works, recitals of his songs, and talks about his life, including his time living in the Vale of Health, Camden. Poet, novelist, composer, singer, philosopher and educationalist, he became in 1913 the first non-European writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Drawing on the memoirs and archives of two remarkable women, this illustrated talk with readings explores London’s Italian quarter, based in Holborn and Clerkenwell, in the 1920s and 1930s. It examines the impact of the warring ideologies of fascists and leftwing factions on individual lives during this turbulent period. The speakers and performers are Melanie Hughes, actress and author of “War Changes Everything” and Nadia Ostachini, actress and artistic director and producer of Tricolore Theatre Company. This is a recording of an event given for Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre on 21st September 2021
Darla Jane Gilroy, tells the story of her mother, Beryl Gilroy, pioneering teacher, writer, psychotherapist and Camden’s first black headteacher, drawing on her unique memoir, “Black Teacher”. Darla Jane Gilroy is Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Reader in Fashion Enterprise at Central Saint Martins UAL. This is a recording of a talk given for Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre on 19th April 2022.
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre holds tens of thousands of wonderful photographs, illustrations and documents illustrating the history of Camden. Copies can be purchased by contacting: [email protected]
It was on 10 November 1964 that HM Queen Elizabeth II officially opened Swiss Cottage Library. This exhibition by Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre explores the history of this landmark listed building.
14th April to 29th May 2025 Monday 10-6 Tuesday 10-6 Thursday 10-7 and Saturday (19th April, 3rd May and 17th May) 11-5
Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre 2nd Floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA
Admission Free
A Stone’s Throw from Westminster -
Suffragettes and Other Feminists in Camden
In 2018, to mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918 - which gave (some) women in the UK the right to vote in Parliamentary elections - Camden hosted “A Stone’s Throw from Westminster – Suffragettes and other Feminists in Camden”, an historical exhibition, curated by Susan Croft and Irene Cockroft of SuffrageArts. We are pleased with their permission to reproduce part of the exhibition here – panels created by Susan Croft and designed by Lydia Blagden.
Where images used do not belong to CLSAC and are still in copyright, every effort has been made to trace copyright holders to obtain permission to reproduce them here.
If you would like to hear about future developments on this topic, please email [email protected]
We Were Here
Olaudah Equiano and Dido Elizabeth Belle (public domain)
In 2021, for Camden’s Black History Season, Camden’s Arts Development team commissioned Community Engagement Co-ordinator, Emily Momoh, to curate an exhibition celebrating Camden’s Black British history. The exhibition, originally displayed at Swiss Cottage Gallery, tells the stories of eight significant individuals of African and Caribbean heritage who lived, worked or studied in Camden contributing to the history of Camden and of Britain. It highlights the struggles, subjugation and discrimination faced by many people across the African diaspora over centuries and represents triumph over adversity through not only survival, but also determination and strength. The achievements of these individuals led to significant social change in local, national and international contexts.
Here and There: Stories of British Bangladeshis in Camden
This exhibition was commissioned by the Bengali Workers’ Association (BWA), curated by Faridha Karim with funding support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was first exhibited in 2011 at the Surma Centre, Robert Street, the home of the BWA and later at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre where it has been subsequently deposited. We are pleased, with the BWA’s agreement, to now present the exhibition on this web page.
In 2010 Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre ran a competition for poems inspired by items in our collections. Pauline's poem won first prize. It was inspired by the Holborn Restaurant menu card of 1917 pictured above.
Dating from 1874, the restaurant stood at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. As well as the Grand Salon complete with band and cabaret, there were the King’s Hall with space for 600 diners, the Queen’s Salon, decorated with portraits of female monarchs, the Empire Room, the Throne Room, the Grand Grill and the Snack Bar, for those of more modest means. It was used for a variety of functions including banquets, Masonic meetings, balls, concerts, wedding breakfasts, bazaars and public meetings. The building was sadly demolished in 1955.
Regent’s Canal: 04.55 Friday 2nd October, a poem by Anna Cookson.
In 2010 Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre ran a poetry competition for poems inspired by items in our collections. Anna’s poem won second prize. It was inspired by a newspaper report about a tragic incident that took place in the early hours of the 2nd of October 1874. A cargo of gunpowder on a boat travelling along the stretch of the Regent’s Canal in Regent’s Park ignited causing a massive explosion which killed three of the crew and wrecked the Macclesfield Bridge. 2020 was the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal.
