Unearth Croydon’s History
Our Research room is a place where visitors are able to access local history resources; to find out more about the history of Croydon and to glance back into the lives of their ancestors who were born and/or lived in Croydon.
As well as a large selection of local history books and historic publications, our collections include photographs, maps, local newspapers, electoral registers and street directories. You can also use our public computers to access Find My Past for free.
Using these resources, will help you to build a picture of what life was like in Croydon in the past. You can see the changes that have happened in Croydon through the years and understand why these changes happened. They will also help you to find out how Croydon has become the multicultural and diverse community that it is today
Photographs
‘A photograph is worth a thousand words’.
A single still image can show us immediately what a place, area or person looked like in the past without having to read a description. Photographs enable us to see details which help us to understand what life was in the past. We can see changes in things such as how buildings were used in the past, the changing styles of architecture and fashion how work, transport and entertainment.has changed and even how the population increases through time.
The Museum of Croydon has a vast collection of photographs connected with the local area. The photographs are separated into different categories which include streets, places, parks, people, events, work, entertainment and sport.
Scanned copies of some of the images in our collection are available by contacting us at museum@croydon.gov.uk
Maps
The Research room and archives hold various types of maps such as Tithe/Enclosure maps, planning maps, bomb maps and goad maps for different years. However, the most commonly used maps in the Research room are the Ordnance Survey series or ‘OS’ maps, this is because they tend to be the most informative
Ordnance Survey is Britain’s mapping agency.
OS create accurate and up to date maps depicting the landscape and human and physical features.
OS maps always use the same symbols to represent houses, schools, churches, roads, rivers etc. These can be recognised by looking at the map ‘key’.
The National Library of Scotland has many online maps including some covering the Croydon area, you can access them by visiting HERE
J. C. Anderson’s Croydon Enclosure map and awards can also be viewed online by using Ancestry library edition HERE
Newspapers
Our wonderful collection of local newspapers are an asset to anyone wishing to find out about what life in Croydon was like in the past.
Newspapers help enormously with historical research as they reflect the time period in which they were created. Some articles can provide a glimpse into what society was like such as, recording past events, advertising, crime and punishment and the cost of living.
In the Research room, early copies of local newspapers can be found on microfilm.
These include:
The Croydon Advertiser - 1869 - current (1872-1939 online *)
The Croydon Times - 1880 - 1967
The Croydon Chronicle - 1855 - 1912 (1855-1912 online*)
The Norwood News - 1868 - 1965 (1868-1965 online*)
The Croydon Guardian - 1877 - 1916 (1877-1912 online*)
From 2001 onwards, local newspapers are held in our archive and are only available in hard copy..
*Digitised copies of some of the above newspapers can be accessed online on the British Newspaper Archives (BNA) website HERE
Image shows Croydon Times - August 18th, 1945
Electoral Registers
An electoral register (or electoral roll) is a list of all the people who have registered to vote in a particular area. We hold the full electoral registers for the Borough of Croydon. To be able to vote in national and local elections you need to be aged 18 or over and listed on the electoral register. The Borough of Croydon is divided up into ‘wards’, for example, Thornton Heath ward or Addiscombe ward. The electoral register lists the streets within each ward and the names of the individuals living in each household who are eligible to vote.
Electoral registers can help you find who was living at a property at the time the register was compiled.
Croydon’s electoral registers first began in 1883 they were annual registers listing local government electors. These registers were called Burgess Rolls and the people eligible to vote for MPs was limited to include only male property owners and tenants of dwelling houses who were aged 21 or over and only male lodgers who were paying at least £10 per year and who had lived at the same address for 12 months or more. Those who voted in the Borough Council elections included men and women who had occupied property and paid rates in the borough for one year and lived within seven miles of the borough.
In 1918, the rules which governed local and parliamentary elections were simplified.
All men who were aged 21 years or over and resident in the constituency were able to vote.
All women who were 30 years or over and who were either local government voters or the wives of local government voters were given the parliamentary franchise for the first time.
From 1928, all women aged 21 or over were finally able to vote, (the qualification age for both men and women to vote was lowered to 18 years and over in 1969).
Using the link HERE
you can access the following Electoral registers on Ancestry, which include some years for the Croydon borough, online:
London, England Electoral Registers 1832-1965
UK Electoral Registers 2003-2010
Surrey Electoral Registers 1832-1962
Image shows 1960’s Croydon Electoral registers
Street Directories
Our Research Room holds an excellent collection of Croydon Street Directories dating back to 1851. Street directories are the unsung heroes of resources for anyone wishing to discover the history of a local area. They are especially helpful to discover the history of a house or street and are particularly useful in helping to fill in the gaps between census records.
They contain alphabetical lists of streets along with other information such as the names and addresses of householders and trades people. The information found inside each directory is based on the year the directory was published. Street directories are very useful when researching the town’s community as it will often list private residents, public buildings, businesses, Members of Parliament, Churches and Chapels, Schools and Orphanages, Literary and Musical societies, Political societies and Charitable institutions Post Office information and local population figures. You will find some of the directories even list notable dates.
Find My Past
Our Research Room has computers available solely dedicated to visitors who wish to research local history and discover their family history. Visitors can access the online genealogy website Find My Past for free. The
website contains over 2 billion family history records which are continually being updated.
The primary source records which are available on these genealogy sites are:
Birth/marriage/death records (also known as BMD)
Census records
Parish registers
Military records
Passenger lists
Image shows 1881 Croydon Census record