Heritage Service

Heritage Service: See Also

Wandsworth's Heritage Service is now managed and run by contractor Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL).

About the Heritage Service

We hold:

records for the borough dating back to 1489
a wide range of books and articles on the borough's history
hundreds of old newspapers, maps, plans, census returns and other documents.

Search the archive catalogue

Archives of the borough can be found by searching our archive catalogue. Please contact us in advance if you would like to see archive material as it is not always possible to get it out on the day.

You can use our resources to find out about Battersea councillor John Archer, who was one of Britain 's first black mayors, or St Mary's Church in Putney, the headquarters of Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. The records we hold include:

World War II air raid reports
Justice of the Peace minutes
Diaries and letters of local residents such as the poet Edward Thomas
Records of the historic civil parishes that made up the borough: Battersea, Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting and Wandsworth
Records of the Wandsworth District Board of Works
Records of local organisations, from political parties to cricket clubs

We also have access to online resources such as Ancestry Library and sell local history publications.

More information about archives and other resources available for researching the history of the borough can be found in this Local and Family History Resources guide by Dorian Gerhold.

Elephants, Upper Richmond Road, c1920

Photographs

You can see some of the many historic images of the borough on our Flickr photostream. If you would like copies of these or would like to know what other photographs we have, please contact us.

Many original records relating to Wandsworth are held by other organisations, such as the London Metropolitan Archives.