A quick-reference guide to other archives, resources and sources of information that you may find useful.
Our ‘Hub connections’ are arranged by broad subject matter. Click an orange button below to navigate to each section.
Click on the red buttons in each section to see more information about each resource.
Section 1: Business and Market Information
Credos (AA Research Think Tank)
Credos (AA Research Think Tank)
The Advertising Association’s think tank, which researches the impact of advertising on the UK’s society and economy. Many essays and reports are freely available on the Advertising Association website.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Walgreens Boots Alliance Archive
Walgreens Boots Alliance Archive
Archive collection of the UK’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer, documenting its development from the mid-19th century. The collection includes photographs, letters, advertisements, building plans, colleague magazines and more. The catalogue can be accessed online and the archive is housed in Nottingham.
Contact:
Email
British Brands Group
British Brands Group
A corporate membership organisation researching and supporting the role of brands in the UK. The online library hosts the Group’s submissions, briefings, studies, press announcements and Brands Lectures. Publications and articles can be freely accessed.
Contact:
Email
Website:
britishbrandsgroup.org.uk
Business Archives Council & Archive
Business Archives Council & Business Archives Council Journal Archive
Organisation promoting the preservation of business records in the UK. Their website hosts the Business History Explorer, an online bibliography relating to the history of UK businesses and industries. The BAC Journal Archive can be accessed via a separate webpage and includes business journals dating to the 1960s
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
BAC homepage; BAC Archive
Chartered Institute of Marketing
Chartered Institute of Marketing
Professional body for marketers around the world, providing the latest marketing industry research from their network of experts. . Access to the archive is by appointment only. The CIM archive holds publications from The Sales Managers’ Association, The Incorporated Sales Managers’ Association (ISMA),The Institute of Marketing and Sales Management (IMSM) 1961, The Institute of Marketing (IM) 1968 and The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) 1989) from 1921 to date.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
cim.co.uk/
Euromonitor
Euromonitor
Global market research agency providing research solutions to organisations. The market research blog hosts articles, whitepapers and webinars that can be freely accessed and cover a wide range of consumer trends.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
euromonitor.com
International Monetary Fund Archives
International Monetary Fund Archives
The archival collection of the IMF holds a wealth of material documenting the work, policies and decision-making process of the IMF. Themes covered in the collection include economic issues like global monetary co-operation, financial stability and sustainable economic growth. The collection is held in Washington DC but archival researchers are available for consultation for those who are unable to visit in person.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
IMF Archives
John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre
The John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre
The Heritage Centre houses the John Lewis Partnership’s business archive and the textile archive of Stead McAlpin, a fabric printing factory once owned by the Partnership. Contact to book appointments at The Heritage Centre in Berkshire.
Contact:
Email
Marks & Spencer Company Archive
The Marks & Spencer Company Archive
Marks & Spencer’s business archive contains a wealth of materials from the company’s founding in 1884 through to its present-day role as a key British high street retailer. The collection includes documents, photographs, films and oral history recordings as well as clothing, packaging and merchandise. Located at the University of Leeds but the catalogue is available to browse online.
Contact:
Email
Mintel
Mintel
Market intelligence agency offering reports on consumers, markets, and competitive landscapes in the UK, USA, Canada, China, India, Germany and Brazil. Reports can be downloaded from their website. Prices range from £300 upwards.
Contact:
Enquire through website
MR Web British Research Barometer
MR Web British Research Barometer
Global daily news of MR industry since 2000.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
mrweb.com/
PAMco
PAMco
The Publishers Audience Measurement Company is the governing body overseeing audience measurement for the published media industry. National Readership Surveys date back to 1968 and 30 year summaries by Guy Consterdine can be accessed by AMSR users.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
pamco.co.uk/
Readership Research Symposia
Readership Research Symposia
An international forum for the discussion and validation of readership research methodologies.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Unilever Archive
Unilever Archive
The extensive business archive of Unilever includes several collections that document the organisation and development of the company, as well as its major operating companies, their subsidiaries and their predecessors. The catalogue is available online, with materials housed in the archive in Port Sunlight.
Contact:
Email
GlaxoSmithKline Archive
GlaxoSmithKline Archive
Archives of UK’s oldest pharmaceutical company including business and research documents from 1747 to the present day.
Contact:
Email
Sainsbury's Archive
Sainsbury’s Archive
Range of archival business material including journals and images, dating from 1850 to present. Material is digitised or available at the Museum of London Docklands.
Contact:
Email
Waitrose Memory Store
Waitrose Memory Store
The expansive business archive of Unilever includes several principle collections that document the organisation and development of the company, as well as its major operating companies, their subsidiaries and their predecessors. The catalogue is available online, with materials housed in the archive in Port Sunlight.
Contact:
Enquire through website
The Penguin Archive, University of Bristol
The Penguin Archive at University of Bristol
Contains the archives of Penguin Books Ltd. from 1935 to the 1990s. Includes materials on the establishment and business life of Penguin Books Ltd., social events, legal cases (particularly the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial of 1960), exhibitions on the company’s history, and the private lives of prominent figures in the early history of the company.
Contact:
Email
BT Digital Archives
BT Digital Archives
Digitised selection from BT’s archive collection from 1846 to present. Includes photographs, reports and items of correspondence all relating to Britain’s role in the development of telecommunications and the impact of the technology on society.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
BT Digital Archive
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust
Archive of documents relating to the history of Jaguar Cars, Lancaster and Daimler, and predecessor companies, dating to the 1890s. Records illustrate corporate and engineering achievements as well as social history of the automotive industry. Housed at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire.
Contact:
Email
British Airways Heritage Collection
British Airways Heritage Collection
Collection of the records and artefacts of British Airways and predecessor companies, documenting the formation, development and operations of the British Airways and its predecessor companies as well as memorabilia and artefacts. All held at the British Airways Heritage Centre in Middlesex.
Contact:
Email
HSBC Archives
HSBC Archives
HSBC’s business archives document not only its corporate history, but global social and economic history as well. The collection includes annual reports, minute books, banknotes, photographs, films and more. The digitised collection can be viewed freely online.
Contact:
Submit requests using this form.
WWW:
HSBC Archive website
Section 2: Business, Market Research and Advertising History
Duke University – Hartman Center
Duke University – Hartman Center
An invaluable and comprehensive collection, the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History acquires, preserves, and promotes materials that document the history of the advertising, marketing and communications industries. The Center, housed at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, makes these materials available to a diverse group of researchers from around the world
Contact:
Email
History of Advertising Trust
History of Advertising Trust
HAT is archivist to the main governing organisations of UK brand communications as well as the archive of many of the top advertising agencies and advertising clubs, reaching back to the 1920s.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
hatads.org.uk
IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards
IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards
Held every two years, this award identifies communications agencies, media owners and advertisers who can prove their work produces effective results. More than 1500 case studies are available on the IPA search engine.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Mark Abrams, Churchill College Cambridge
Mark Abrams papers at Churchill College Cambridge
Mark Abrams was one of the pioneers of market research and opinion polling. He was at the heart of some of the most important social and cultural shifts of the mid-twentieth century, carrying out surveys into public attitudes for newspapers, retailers and manufacturers, universities, trade unions, new town planners, charities, broadcasters and politicians.
Contact:
Email
Scottish Business Archive
Scottish Business Archive
An archive of business records relating to the whole of Scotland dating from the 18th century to the present day. It covers most types of business and industrial activity with over 400 collections from banking, confectioners and distillers to retail, solicitors and undertakers, and especially shipbuilding, locomotive manufacture, textiles and mining.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Section 3: Politics, Public Policy and Polling
British Polling Council
British Polling Council
Self-regulation association for opinion polling in Britain and an association of polling organisations that publish polls and are committed to promoting transparency in polling. Contains useful details of members.
Contact:
Enquire through website
ICM
ICM
An established polling company whose archive goes back to 2015.
Contact:
Enquire through website
IPSOS UK
IPSOS UK
Research Highlights is a compendium of what polling company Ipsos UK finds interesting every month since 2015. This page links to a selection of other useful websites, including Understanding Society
Contact:
Enquire through website
People's History Museum
People’s History Museum
The People’s History Museum is a collection of items and documents from the last 250 years of British social and political history. It is home to the complete holdings of the national Labour Party and Communist Party of Great Britain, archives of working-class organisations, personal papers of radical politicians, writers and activists, and many photographs. A good deal of the collection is digitised and is free to search and download.
Contact:
Email
WAPOR
WAPOR
WAPOR’s mission is to promote the importance of conducting scientifically sound public-opinion research and ensure that this information is useful to society. The information is mainly current rather than historical and contains, for example, a useful collection of research carried out across the world into Covid-19, which is free to download.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
wapor.org
YouGov
YouGov
YouGov collects opinions from around the world, including what people think about politics, current affairs and brands. There is a wealth of information freely available on their website and an archive of comment going back to 2005 from a sister website, UK Polling Report, written by Anthony Wells, who works for YouGov.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
yougov.co.uk
Section 4: Cultural and Social History
BBC Archive
BBC Archive
One of the world’s largest multi-media archives and much of it available online.
Contact:
None suppled
WWW:
BBC Archive website
BFI Archive
BFI Archive
The BFI (British Film Institute) archive contains nearly a million films, TV programmes and clips of historical footage, including British home movies, documentaries and news footage as well as TV and cinema ads from the past 100 years. Thousands of these titles have been converted to digital format with many more available to the visitor.
Contact:
None supplied
Borthwick Institute for Archives
Borthwick Institute for Archives
A wide-ranging archive, available online, housed at the University of York. It includes the archives of the three Rowntree trusts, Rowntrees, Terry’s of York, Vickers Scientific Instruments among many others.
Contact:
Email
British Library Sound Archives
British Library Sound Archives and National Life Stories
Collections of sound recordings, free to access, coming from all over the world and covering the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama, literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds. The oral histories date back to the beginning of the 20th century and form a unique record of people’s lives in Britain.
Contact:
Central email
British Pathé
British Pathé
Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its collection of news film and movies is fully digitised and available online.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
britishpathe.com
The Policy Navigator
The Policy Navigator
The Policy Navigator website is a tool for policy makers, researchers and enthusiasts to understand how our current health and social care policy landscape has developed, and to learn from the past.
The Navigator charts some of the major policies and related developments in health and care from the emergence of the first hospitals in England in the 11th century right up to modern day. The focus is on domestic policy rather than international developments, and primarily covers England rather than the devolved administrations.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Foundation is a charity working to solve poverty in the UK.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
jrf.org.uk
LARIA (local government organisation)
LARIA (local government organisation)
The Local Area Research and Intelligence Association was established in 1974 to promote the role and practice of research in local government.
Contact:
Email
WWW:
LARIA website
London Metropolitan Archives
London Metropolitan Archives
The London Metropolitan Archives is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London. There are collections from businesses, schools, hospitals, charities and all manner of other organisations from the London area, in the form of books, maps, photographs, films and documents dating back to 1067. Visiting is recommended but a lot is available online.
Contact:
Email
LSE Digital Archives
LSE Digital Archves
Several remarkable archive collections, including The Women’s Library and that of Charles Booth, as well as British politics, LGBT collections, welfare and social security and many more. Visits can be made via an appointment but much is available online.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Mass Observation Archives
Mass Observation Archives
The Archive preserves the papers of the original Mass Observation movement and current Mass Observation Project and makes them publicly available, as part of the University of Sussex’s Special Collections at the The Keep. Mass Observations has gathered documents about everyday life in Britain from 1937 up to the present day. It is open to everybody provided they have agreed to abide by the access conditions at The Keep.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
massobs.org.uk
Media Archive for Central England
Media Archive for Central England
Media Archive for Central England is the public sector regional film archive that collects, preserves and provides access to film, television and other moving image materials that relate to the East Midlands and West Midlands. Available online.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
macearchive.org
NatCen
NatCen
Britain’s largest independent social research organisation. For the last 50 years, it has worked on behalf of government and charities to find out what people really think about important social issues and how Britain is run. Reports available online going back to 2000 and includes British Social Attitudes surveys from 2011.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
NatCen Archive Index
National Archives
National Archives
Official archive and publisher for the UK government; guardians of over 1000 years of national documents. Discovery holds more than 32 million descriptions of records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country. Over 9 million records are available for download. Available online.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Old Bailey Archives
Old Bailey Archives
The proceedings of the Old Bailey, London’s central criminal court, from 1674 to 1913, details the lives of non-elite people. Available online.
Contact:
Enquire through website
Science Museum Online Collection
Science Museum Online Collection
Photos alongside histories of over 350,ooo objects. Available online.
Contact:
Enquire through website
UK Data Archive
UK Data Archive
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, we curate the UK’s largest collection of economic, population and social research data. Free at the point of service for non-commercial use and with over 47,000 registered users from 146 countries, we are firmly established as pioneers in providing training and access to data for teaching, learning and public benefit.
Contact:
Enquire through website
WWW:
data-archive.ac.uk/
Warwick Modern Records Centre
Warwick Modern Records Centre
Archives on Trades Unions and employers, business and economics, political protest, welfare and education as well as human rights and civil rights. Warwick University.
Contact:
Email