Following the lockdown announcement, our Researchers' Service is currently closed. Our Library will also remain closed. Find out more.

Bishopsgate Institute is open to everyone. We operate a free public space for private study (the Library), and a Special Collections and Archives Researchers’ Area where our unique and nationally renowned collections can be consulted.

As well as providing a space for independent quiet study, our Library space is stocked with daily newspapers and current affairs periodicals and magazines. Personal devices and laptops can be used with our free WIFI access. Drinks (with lids) are permitted in the Library, but food must be consumed elsewhere.

Both the Library and the Special Collections and Archives Researchers’ Area are wheelchair accessible. Assistance dogs are welcome.

There are no membership requirements. Everyone is welcome. We are a reference library only – books and other materials may only be consulted on site.

#FROMTHE ARCHIVES

Married in 1950, Chris and Betty Birch have been involved in political, trade union, and LGBTQ+ activism for over 60 years. Sharing similar interests, they were both Communist Party Members and involved with organisations such as the Aid to Spanish Youth Committee. After the death of his friend, Mark Ashton, Chris became involved in forming the Mark Ashton Memorial Trust, which was created to raise money for individuals living with HIV. The archive includes the truncheon taken from the police by Mark Ashton, correspondence, personal scrapbooks, press cuttings, and various other papers relating to the couples activism.