The British Library Newspapers Section
– Everything in Print

The British Library Newspapers Section is located in Colindale, North London.

It has an extensive collection of newspapers, literally millions of copies.

These are contained in more than 600,000 bound volumes and almost 400,000 reels of microfilm.

The collection actually takes up a staggering 45 km of shelf space.

It is the largest collection of British newspapers in the world.

The collections at the British Library were founded on two main collections; the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and the Burney Collection of Newspapers.

The Thomason Collection consists of 17th century newspapers that chronicle the turbulent years of Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil Wars.

The Burney Collection are 700 bound volumes covering the years 1603 to 1817, collected by the Reverend Dr. Charles Burney and purchased by the British Library in 1818.

Formal collection of newspapers began at the British Library in 1822 and has continued until the current day, aided by the legal deposit legislation that requires publishers to send copies of what they publish to the British Museum.

The museum also has a wide array of newspapers from most English-speaking countries, and both Western and Eastern Europe.

There are many periodicals in the museum’s collection, covering everything from fashion and film to sports and music.

Women’s magazines, from early Suffragette papers to the current glossy publications, are of particular interest, as are the collections of radical and political papers, British military history periodicals, and religious and ethnic publications.

The collection of football programmes is very interesting, as are the many trade and hobbies periodicals.

The British Library Newspapers Section also has an outstanding collection of British comics ranging from about 1870 to the present.

Aside from general interest, the information in these publications is of particular help to researchers looking to piece together the past; the articles and advertisements tell us so much about the society and culture of the times.

The British Library Newspapers Section is an important repository for information about the day to day life in Britain and the changes in society over the years.