About

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

Through research, public talks, oral history projects, heritage advocacy, community events and daily social media posts on Instagram and Facebook, I document and share the history of Stoke Newington, a north London settlement with roots stretching back more than 1,000 years.

I moved to Stoke Newington in 2002 and have been researching its history independently since 2011. What began as a personal interest has developed into a long-term project to document the area’s history and make it accessible to a wider audience.

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

Background

I’ve been interested in history since childhood, shaped by curiosity and an early ambition to become an archaeologist. I later built a professional career in user experience design, and that background informs how I organise, present and communicate local history, including through visual “then and now” comparisons.

My interest in Stoke Newington’s past began after discovering The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Stoke Newington (1820). Since 2012, I have shared local history online through social media and this website. Since 2016, I have organised Stoke Newington History Talks, a regular local history event featuring three talks each time.

Over time, I have built a personal collection of books, maps, photographs, postcards, programmes, directories, printed ephemera, objects and other historical material relating to Stoke Newington. It has become a small working archive of the area’s history, preserving traces of local life that might otherwise be overlooked or lost.

Stoke Newington official guides from my collection. Published by the former Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington, they are both valuable research sources and surviving traces of the borough before it became part of Hackney in 1965.

The collection supports my research, talks and social media posts on Instagram and Facebook, and often helps uncover details that are missing from formal records, including former shops, local organisations, public events, street changes and everyday life. I use archives, private collections and local memories in my research. Oral histories and community knowledge are an important part of my research, alongside written, visual and material sources.

I have been fortunate to learn from and work alongside fellow researchers and local history enthusiasts, including the late Stoke Newington historian Derek Baker and Nick Perry, a passionate champion of heritage conservation, who sadly passed away in 2024.

Sharing Local History

Social media is a central part of how I share Stoke Newington’s history. I use it to publish discoveries, photographs, maps, research notes, event updates and observations about the changing streetscape, making local history visible as an ongoing public conversation rather than something confined to archives or formal talks.

I share material regularly on Instagram and Facebook. Between 2013 and 2025, I published more than 33,000 posts and 28,000 images on Twitter/X documenting Stoke Newington’s history and changing streetscape. The complete Twitter/X archive is now searchable online.

Recordings of my talks and presentation slides are available online.

What I Do

Research

My research focuses on the area defined by the former Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington, which existed from 1900 to 1965. It includes long-term, structured work on the history of every shop on Stoke Newington Church Street, the Clissold Park preservation campaign, oral histories and local memories, and surveys of heritage street signs and coalhole covers.

Explore Research

Talks & Events

I regularly give talks on Stoke Newington’s history and run Stoke Newington History Talks, a recurring local history event held every four months since 2016.

Press & Appearances

My work has been featured in television, radio, podcasts and print publications. I have also contributed as a local history adviser on television programmes.

See Press & Appearances