Barts Health Archives

Searching the archives

To find out more about our archives, search or browse our online catalogue. We can help and advise researchers, so please contact us with your enquiry.  We also have a suite of research guides, designed to highlight some of the key research themes across our collections and to tell you where you can find, access and understand the relevant records. This is an expanding resource and we will be adding more guides over time.

We aim to be as helpful as possible, but we do not have the staff resources to carry out detailed research for you. 

What we hold

We hold records of over 35 current and former hospitals as well as many organisations, institutions and individuals associated with the hospitals and with health care and health education in London - over 100 individual collections. You can find a full list of archive collections, with links through to the online catalogue, here [pdf] 782KB

View the locations of the hospitals for which we hold records and click through to our catalogue using the map below:

We are continually adding new material to the catalogue, and undertaking conservation work to ensure that the archives can be accessed now and in the future.

In recent years, generous funding from the Wellcome Trust, The Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust, and Barts Charity has enabled us to add thousands more items to our online catalogue. Read more about previous projects The Fight Against Tuberculosis, STIs in East London in the Twentieth Century, and A Study in Specialism on the project blogs, and find out more about the history of Whipps Cross Hospital captured through the Whipps Cross Voices project through the project website.

You can search catalogue descriptions of over 70,000 records online, using our online catalogue. Although the majority of the records listed on the catalogue can currently only be consulted through a visit to the archives, afew collections or series of records have been digitised and can be accessed online, as follows:

• Images from the St Bartholomew's Hospital Pathology Illustrations collection are available as part of the Wellcome Collection's image catalogue.
• Search and browse the Student Registers for St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, 1906-1934 and indexes to earlier students
• Search the St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal from 1893 onwards 

A few films from our audio visual collections have been digitised and may be viewed at our YouTube channel, alongside short videos produced by the archives team to highlight items and stories from the collections.

The Historic Hospital Admission Records Project (HHARP) is an online database of admission records for four historic children's hospitals, including the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease, records of which are held in our collections. The database of admissions for the Alexandra Hospital covers inpatient admissions for the years 1867-1895  The website also features articles on aspects of the hospital’s history, and short biographies of medical staff. Registration is necessary to access the full contents, but is free of charge.

Records of many other London hospitals whose records are not held by Barts Health Archives are held at London Metropolitan Archives. Their guide to the Hospital Records they hold, and how to access them, is available online.

Useful websites

• Aim25
• The National Archives Discovery

In 2023, we launched the Barts Health NHS Trust Archives newsletter, to share updates on recent activities and current projects. Contact us to join our mailing list. You can also download previous issues here:

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives Newsletter, Number 1, March 2023

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives Newsletter, Number 2: June 2023

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives Newsletter, Number 3: September 2023

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives Newsletter, Number 4: December 2023

Barts Health NHS Trust Archives Newsletter, Number 5: March 2024

Bringing the collections closer at the Royal London Hospital 

Thanks to generous funding from Barts Charity, we are delighted to be working on a project to develop new interactive digital heritage displays for busy waiting areas in The Royal London Hospital. The new displays will provide new ways for patients and visitors to the hospital to explore material from the historic collections of the hospital, which span nearly three centuries.

We working with patients and local residents who are joining us as Community Curators to select items from the historic collections of the Royal London Hospital for the displays, discover new stories and bring new perspectives on the many histories of the hospital.

We still have some spaces available for workshops in May 2024; if you are interested in taking part, please contact us to find out more and join us for a workshop. Community Curators will each receive a £40 voucher as a thank-you for participating.

Thank you!