London's History Just A Click Away

The Survey of London Online postcard A hundred years of research on London 's history is to be made available online thanks to a joint project by English Heritage and the Institute of Historical Research to digitise the Survey of London.

Now a part of English Heritage, the Survey is the closest thing to an official history of London. Since its foundation in 1894 the Survey has built up an unrivalled reputation for its detailed studies of the capital's architecture and topography; these are essential reading for anyone interested in the development of London, its buildings and its monuments.

February 2006 sees the publication of eight of the Survey's 45 area or 'parish' volumes on the Institute's British History Online website at www.british-history.ac.uk/surveyoflondon. These cover the St James's, Soho and Mayfair districts of Westminster . The remaining volumes will be published over the next two years, with completion scheduled for September 2008. Among the areas that will be covered are further parts of Westminster, including Covent Garden, Lambeth, Kensington, Chelsea, Camden, Southwark, Hammersmith, Poplar and the Isle of Dogs.

Electronic publication will enable quick, free-text searches to be made of the entire Survey of London series, opening up this valuable resource to a potentially vast new audience, and revolutionising access to its wealth of information for existing users.

Aimed at the general public as much as the specialist, the Survey volumes have long been used by a wide readership including h istorians, heritage professionals, solicitors, estate agents, teachers, students, local residents, property owners and genealogists. All users should benefit from the wider dissemination of the Survey's findings that online publication will bring.

The Survey is being published alongside important historical series such as the Victoria County History and the records of the History of Parliament Trust. This joint availability will open up new ways of exploring certain subjects for researchers, and will highlight useful connections between the different sources.

Digitisation also provides an opportunity for the Survey to make corrections and insert important new material which has come to light since the volumes were originally published. In addition to the text, the web-pages will include all the line drawings and, subject to copyright clearance, the plate pages.

John Greenacombe, English Heritage General Editor of the Survey, said: "The launch of this website opens a new and exciting chapter in the long history of the Survey of London. From today, the work and resources of the Survey will become freely and easily accessible to a new and potentially vast audience not just in London but across the world. Anyone interested in London's history will find this site indispensable."

Professor David Bates, Director of the Institute of Historical Research said: " The Institute is delighted to be collaborating with the Survey of London on this initiative. The facility to search the Survey volumes alongside other British History Online sources, including the Victoria County History of Middlesex and a wealth of other material for the history of London , will allow researchers to both ask and answer new questions, and open up the capital's past."