About the Catalogue

This catalogue contains information on our archive collections, photograph, art and print collections, and theatre collections. We have an online guide to our collections which highlights some of our most used and interesting collections.

With over 800 years of documented history in our collections, the records can be used to help you with family history, building research, community history, information about the proceedings of parishes and the council, business history, academic research and much more.

Highlights of the collection include:

• Pre-Council and civil parish records, including poor law records, churchwardens accounts and militia records.
• All of the parish registers for the Diocese of South Westminster, the area south of Oxford Street. Parish Registers for other parts of the City of Westminster, including Marylebone and Paddington, are with the London Metropolitan Archives.
• Collections of business records of important firms such as Gillow of Lancaster (later Waring and Gillow), Jaeger and Liberty plc.
• An extensive collection of material on the organisation of Westminster’s Civil Defence during World War Two, incorporating a bomb map, incident reports and photographs.
• Drainage plans for most properties in the Westminster area.
• Records of estates, schools, clubs, societies, charities, institutions and private individuals.
• Over 60,000 photographs and prints, some of which have been digitised and can be viewed on this catalogue.

If you cannot find what you are after, please have a look at the How To Search page. We also have a selection of hard copy catalogues for collections such as Liberty’s, Jaeger and Waring and Gillow in our search room.