 Women workers at Morton's jam and sweet factory, 1900s. Ref IHT/096_10
Saturday 3 December | 11am-4pm | Book your FREE place!
Love the Isle of Dogs?
Join the Friends of Island History Trust for an all-day event exploring the history and legacy of its famous food production firms: Maconochies, Morton's, McDougall's and Tate & Lyle.
The morning session from 11am to 1pm will feature talks on Maconochies and Mortons.
The afternoon session from 2pm to 4pm will be on McDougalls and Tate and Lyle.
Highlights from the collections will be on display, alongside a pop-up stall with publications and 2023 calendars for sale. Refreshments will be provided.
This event is part of the Feeding the Hamlets exhibition programme.
Our recently catalogued sound collection includes a number of unique oral history recordings on reel-to-reel and audiocassette tapes , many of which have not been heard for decades. We are pleased to announce that these tapes have now been digitised, along with several other sound recordings relating to the borough's Jewish history. These include:
- Interviews with Battle of Cable Street veterans
- Childhood reminiscences by well-known East Enders, including Lionel Bart, Bernard Bresslaw and Georgia Brown
- Historic radio broadcasts on topics ranging from Yiddish theatre to local synagogues
- Lectures on Jewish topics recorded at Tower Hamlets Central Library
- Street histories by the Springboard Education Trust
 Some of the original cassettes on Jewish themes which have been recently digitised.
You can browse our sound collection by going to our online catalogue’s advanced search page, selecting ‘Audio’ in the Type field, and clicking ‘Search’. If a recording has been digitised it will include the statement ‘A digitised public access copy of this item is available’ in its Access Conditions field, and you cam visit our Reading Room to listen to it on a computer.
This digitisation was made possible thanks to funding from Prof. Nadia Valman's current AHRC-funded project 'Making and Remaking the Jewish East End' at Queen Mary, University of London.
Our audio-visual and sound collections are a vital part of our borough's heritage, but many are on fragile formats which require digitisation before they are lost forever. Want to help? Contact us at localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk.
We have recently released online catalogue descriptions to the archives of two local historians, Sydney Maddocks and Bradley Snooks.
 Notes by Sydney Mattocks (1870-1953) on the early origins of Stepney (Ref: P/MDS/1/2)
Sydney Maddocks
The papers of Sydney Maddocks (Ref: P/MDS) are a fine example of a personal research archive amassed by the industrious local historian of years gone by.
Sydney Maddocks was born in Stepney in 1870 into a well-known family from Ratcliff. He joined the Commercial Gas Company in about 1889 where he stayed for some 46 years until his retirement in 1935. As Registrar of the Company, he contributed articles on the history of east London to 'The Copartnership Herald', the magazine published by the firm.
In his lifetime, Maddocks was widely acknowledged as an expert on the history of east London. His papers reflect that range of his historical interests and his traditional research elements are there: architectural church notes, biographical sketches of incumbents and local people, genealogical extracts, summary notes from numerous primary and secondary sources with information about streets, taverns, events and past industries. The twin strength of the collection lies in the breadth of Maddocks’s historical interests and the fact that he was so well organised: not for our Sydney the chaotic pile of scribbled research notes growing ever-higher and never put to productive use – rather we have card indexes arranged by subject with clear references.
Our Local History Library collections include the magazine 'The Copartnership Herald' (Ref: LC015) which included many of Maddocks' short articles on Stepney, as well as his self-published pamphlets.
Sydney Maddocks was also involved in the civic life of east London: he was a trustee and manager of Greencoat Schools, White Horse Street and was also a member of the Coopers' Company. Sydney Maddocks died in Southend, Essex in 1953.
Bradley Snooks
Bradley Snooks, local historian and resident of Bow has carried out extensive historical research and taken many photographs depicting Bow which are deposited with us (Ref: P/SNO).
A member of the East London History Society, he has researched the history of Bow and its streets including their origin and meaning. In 1990 he wrote for the East London History Society newsletter:
'My hobby started when growing up in Coborn Road. There was an argument one day as to who the road name was after. Some said it was the old time singer and Hollywood actor Charles Coborn, and someone else said it was the great philanthropist Prisca Coborn, who died in 1701. The latter is in fact correct although interestingly enough, Charles Coborn took his name from the street!'
(Source: East London History Society Newsletter, Spring 1990, page 6)
Like Maddocks, Bradley Snooks produced a card index to his research, and also took many colour photographs of the Bow area during 1980s-1990s, with topics supplemented by articles from primary and secondary sources. This collection of photographs are mounted on card, titled, and arranged by alphabetically by street.
We are grateful to Bradley for depositing his collection with us. You can browse his photographs and research in the Local History Library by searching ‘Snooks’ in our online catalogue.
 Bradley Snooks' photographs of the deer enclosure at Victoria Park. Ref: P/SNO/1/33
We are delighted to share with you our Annual Report for the period April 2021-March 2022, as we gradually reopened the doors to the public after Covid-induced closures.
Wondering what we've been up to behind the scenes? How many local history enquiries we've answered, researchers we've hosted, what people have to say about us, and what outreach work we've been doing?
Check out the pdf report here!
Compiled by our resident Stats Queen, Debbie Smith.
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We are closed for Christmas from Friday 23 December and Monday 2 January inclusive.
We will reopen on Tuesday 3 January 2023.
On our last day of opening - Thursday 22 December - we will close at 5pm instead of our normal 7pm.
Until then the Reading Room is open at the times below for all your collections research and local history shopping needs, including the much sought after David Granick book, the 2023 Island History calendar and duplicate and withdrawn books!
We are waiting to hear from you!
Reading Room - Regular opening hours
- Tuesday 10.30am-4pm
- Wednesday 10.30am-4pm
- Thursday 10.30am-7pm
First and third Saturdays of every month:
That's the following Saturdays coming up:
- Saturday 3 December
- Saturday 17 December
- Saturday 7 January
- Saturday 21 January
Additionally the Feeding the Hamlets Exhibition is open 10am-5pm Monday-Friday, plus the Saturdays and Thursday evenings noted above. On Monday and Friday lunchtimes, the exhibition will be closed for lunch between 1 and 2pm.
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