Switching the lens: mapping London’s multiracial past

Discover the untold stories of people of colour in early modern London through powerful digital maps and newly uncovered archival records in this free talk!

What if the streets of London could speak? What if they revealed a city shaped for centuries by people whose stories have too often been ignored?

The Switching the Lens project from London Metropolitan Archives brings together over 3,300 baptism, marriage and burial records of people of African, Caribbean, Asian and Indigenous heritage. These records span from 1561 to 1840 and uncover a multiracial London that many people have never seen. This powerful and expanding dataset offers a fresh perspective on the city’s past, one that is vibrant, diverse and deeply connected to global histories.

Join us for a gripping talk that brings these histories to life. Using digital mapping tools, the speakers will share the stories of individuals recorded in the archive. You will see how they lived, where they moved, and the global journeys that led them to London. These maps do more than plot locations. They help us see the city differently, connecting the past to the places we know today.

Through this visual and research-led approach, we will explore how people of colour left their mark on London’s streets, neighbourhoods and communities, reshaping the city in ways that still matter now.

This event is part of the Black History 365 series at Fulham Palace. The series invites audiences to uncover hidden histories and hear the voices of those who have been too often left out of the record.

About the speakers

Liberty Collard is a second-year History PhD student at Northeastern University London, using digital technologies to rediscover and recenter the Black African presence in London in the long eighteenth-century. Liberty is a research assistant on the Mapping Black London project at Northeastern and the AHRC CounterTenor project.

Odile Jordan is a first-year History PhD Student at Northeastern University London, working on the South East Asian presence in nineteenth-century London. Odile is also a research assistant on the Mapping Black London project at Northeastern.

Event details:

• This talk is part of the Black History talk series.
• This event is suitable for ages 16+.
• This event is in partnership with Mapping Black London.