I’m a local historian and heritage advocate focused on Stoke Newington, a historic area in the London Borough of Hackney.

I moved to Stoke Newington in 2002 and have been researching its history since 2012. What began as a personal interest has grown into a long-term project spanning research, public talks, publications, oral histories, community projects, daily social media posts on Instagram and Facebook, and heritage advocacy.

For speaking enquiries, local history questions, or to share memories, photographs or documents relating to Stoke Newington, get in touch.

Amir Dotan

From My Talks Archive

From Attics to Archives: Local History Treasure Troves

On Tuesday 3 November, I gave a talk at Hackney Archives as part of the Friends of Hackney Archives AGM, sharing the stories of seven local history treasure troves and the people who collected, preserved and rediscovered them. It was great to see Hackney Archives packed, with all 120 places booked within three days of tickets becoming available.

The 45-minute talk featured 150 slides of photographs, documents and video clips, exploring collections relating to Stoke Newington’s history. Some were assembled over decades by dedicated local historians, while others were discovered in attics, cupboards and even a shed! The full recording of the talk is now available to watch below, alongside photographs from the evening.

Back to the Local… A Stoke Newington Perspective at the Red Lion

On 28 September I gave my talk Back to the Local… A Stoke Newington Perspective upstairs at the Red Lion in Stoke Newington Church Street. The event was organised by the London Pubs Group of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale), and places made available to the public only a few days beforehand sold out very quickly.

300 New Copies of The History of Every Shop in Stoke Newington Church Street

Fourteen months after I rescued the original 1972 T. J. Electrics shop sign from the back of a builder’s van, 300 copies of a new special edition of my book, The History of Every Shop in Stoke Newington Church Street, have been printed and are now being given away free. The printing was made possible by the Science Museum’s acquisition of the rescued sign, bringing together two projects concerned with preserving the commercial history of Stoke Newington Church Street.

A Searchable Archive of 12 Years of My Stoke Newington History Twitter/X Posts

Over the past 12 years, I have shared thousands of posts online documenting Stoke Newington’s buildings, streets, businesses, people, and changing landscape. What began in 2013 as a way of sharing local history discoveries gradually became a large public record of the area, built through daily posts across Twitter/X. That archive is now publicly searchable online in a site I created.

Hackney History Festival 2026

I had a great time taking part in the Hackney History Festival on May 16th for the third year running and presenting once again at the Round Chapel in Clapton. This year, my talk focused on ghost shop signs, the faded names of long-forgotten businesses that sometimes reappear when modern fascias are removed. During the 40-minute talk, I shared examples uncovered across Stoke Newington in recent years, highlighting the variety of signwriting styles and the stories behind several signs that were recorded, and in some cases rescued, just in time.