I'm currently writing a book about the Poplar Rates Rebellion in the 1920s. So I thought I'd share with you some of the websites I've come across that have proved useful in my research. This does not claim to be a definitive list. If you'd like to add any recommendations, please feel free to log in and post a comment!
- Tower Hamlets History Online includes a stack of articles from the Tower Hamlets Local History Archives, inlcuidng several of labour movement interest - as you might expect from a borough which includes the docks, Cable Street, Poplar, and the site of the Bryant & May match factory.
- Graham Stevenson's personal website includes a very thorough compendium of Communist boigraphy - don't expect it to be critical, though!
- Here's the website of the London Socialist Historians Group.
- Loads of old labour movement stuff is stored at the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University - check their website to see whether they've got what you're looking for.
- There are bits and bobs that can help local history research at Local History Online.
- The British Library's Newspaper Reading Room, opposite Colindale station, is an absolutel treasure trove. Have a look at their website before visiting, and you can reserve the papers that you want to browse. Be warned - go in the morning, cos you will stay all day.
- There's all sorts of stuff listed at the National Archive, from your grandad's war record to Cabinet papers and census information.
- Lots - and I mean lots - of stuff on East London History here.
- Exploring 20th Century London is a relatively new site, a collaboration between various museums, well-presented with some good info and pics.
- I'd like to recommend the Labour History Group's website, but unfortunately, I have to criticise it for not having a Search facility, and being so out-of-date that it advertises its next meeting as being in January 2006! I'm also not sure how reliable a source it is, as there are several factual errors contained in one paragraph of its biography of George Lansbury (I took the trouble to e-mail them the corrections, but to no avail, I'm afraid).
- Labour History Resources is a page of links to other labour history sites.
- If you want facts and figures on a particular part of Britain at any time between 1801 and 2001, you could do worse than to check out A Vision of Britain Through Time - stuffed full of stats on population, employment etc.
- The Glasgow Digital Library has a useful section on the 'Red Clydeside' movement.
- Try the Socialist History Society, the Society for the Study of Labour History, and TUC History Online.