Advice and enquiries

Remote enquiry service

There are several ways you can remotely access information held at Hackney Archives:

  • if you want to know what material we hold on a particular subject, please search our online catalogue. For more information on specific themes, see our guides on this page
  • for information and examples of our film holdings, please visit the London Screen Archives website
  • if you have a specific question about material you think we may hold, please email us at archives@hackney.gov.uk
  • if you have a family history related enquiry then the information you require might be accessible via Ancestry UK, an online service which holds available census data and information on registered births, marriages and deaths. A library edition is available for free to use on site at Hackney Archives and at any Hackney library.
  • for a regularly updated, curated selection of images and other information from our collections, follow Hackney Archives on Twitter and Facebook

Purchasing copies of images and re-use licences

Search our image database to identify the images you would like to purchase. You can then order copies of images (subject to size and quantity restrictions) for private research purposes. Re-use licenses can also be provided if images are to be published or otherwise re-used, in line with copyright legislation. Information on charges can be found in these documents listing our copying fees and re-use license fees.

We can accept payments by credit or debit card in person or over the phone, as well as via the Council’s online payments portal.

Please email archives@hackney.gov.uk to make your request.

Look-up service

We are currently operating a ‘look-up’ service for people whose enquiries can only be answered by physically accessing the collections.

This means we will look up a specific piece of information for a user and provide a digital copy eg. an article from the Hackney Gazette archive or an entry in the Abney Park burial registers or a series of pages from a deed.

We’ll need information such as a specific date, subject matter and name of the person concerned, or the title and reference number for an item listed in our catalogue. Due to time constraints, we will only be able to look up one piece of information per user per week.

The basic fee is £20 for the service and the first 10 digital captures. The fee for each additional capture is £1 with an upper limit of 30 captures per request. Please note that the copies provided are for research purposes only and will be subject to an additional re-use fee if they are to be published or otherwise re-used – see below for details.

Please email archives@hackney.gov.uk to make your request.

Guides

These guides are useful starting points and will help you to explore our collections:

Page updated on: 31 January 2024

Hackney Archives

Address

Dalston CLR James Library
Dalston Square
E8 3BQ

Telephone

Opening times

  • Wed to Fri 10am to 6pm and the first Sat of every month 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm