Find King’s College London Archives
About
The Archives hold a unique and internationally significant range of archival and printed sources, ensuring their preservation and providing access to King's students, academics and other colleagues, the global research community and the general public.
Collection strengths include:-
- History of King's College London and its merged institutions
- Military and defense studies
- Travel and exploration- Empire and Commonwealth
- History of medicine and nursing- History of modern Greece
- English Literature (20th Century)
- History of science
Opening hours
The Archives Reading Room is open to both staff and students of King’s College London, and to external researchers.
Opening hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10.00-17.00.
CONTINUING DISRUPTION TO KCL ARCHIVES SERVICE
Please note that some collections have been transferred to our ‘OFF CAMPUS’ storage in preparation for essential building work. This means that we will need additional notice to produce this material, so please book in advance and provide specific catalogue references.
Until Friday 14 February 2025, the Archives Service will be restricted while the final stage of this essential building work is completed. Our Reading Room will remain open to researchers, but SOME PARTS OF THE COLLECTION CANNOT BE ACCESSED BY ARCHIVES STAFF.
To ensure that the material you wish to see can be produced, we ask you to book research appointments and select material using our archives catalogue by Friday 15 November, 2024. After this date, we will still accept bookings, but some collections will not be available.
We apologise for any inconvenience, but with careful planning and advance booking, we hope to minimise disruption to our researchers.
To book an appointment or for advice about availability of material, please email archives@kcl.ac.uk.
Please contact us to arrange a visit and see our webpages for further information.
We continue to offer a remote enquiry service for all users and will accept requests for the use of quotations or digital images in published works, online or for other commercial and non-commercial purposes. We can also provide general information about our collections and advice on how to search our catalogue.
Access
King’s students and staff must present their King’s identification card and fill in a Reader Registration form on their first visit.
All external users must present two forms of identification, one photographic and one proof of address, on their first visit and fill in a Reader Registration form.
Document retrieval
Documents held in onsite stores
Document ordering times are 11.00, 14.00 and 16.00 hours. Requests for the following morning should be made by 16.00 hours. Orders for Monday morning should be made by 16.00 hours on Friday.
Documents held offsite
We require seven days' notice to retrieve collections held offsite. A list of affected collections can be found here.
Readers with disabilities
- Access to the Strand Building for people with disabilities
- The reading room is wheelchair accessible and there is lift access to the floor on which the Reading Room is situated
- A Topaz XL document magnifier is available for visually impaired readers
- The use of tape recorders for taking notes may be permitted at the discretion of the staff and with the agreement of other readers present
- Accessible toilets are available on the ground and third floors of the Strand building
Location
The Archives Reading Room is room S3.02 on the third floor of the Strand Building (marked Archives on the map below).
Part of Strand Building
Address
King's College London, S3.02 Strand Building, Strand, London WC2R 2LSTel: +44 (0)20 7848 2015
Email: archives@kcl.ac.uk