I’m Amir Dotan, 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.
Through this work, I document Stoke Newington’s past, record its changing streetscape and make its history accessible, while helping to preserve surviving traces of that history where possible.
For speaking enquiries, local history questions, or to share memories, photographs or documents relating to Stoke Newington, get in touch.
The Story So Far
How It Started
I’ve been interested in history, family history and archaeology since childhood. I was also very arty from a young age, and my professional career eventually followed that creative path into user experience design. Delving into local history has become a serious personal interest: a way to return to those earlier historical interests while drawing on the skills I developed as a designer.
From around 2011, I began taking a growing interest in Stoke Newington’s past. That interest took off in 2012, when I found myself increasingly curious about the history of the streets, buildings and places around me. What began as personal curiosity gradually developed into more sustained research and a desire to share what I was finding with others.
Taking It Online
In 2012, I began sharing my research online through Facebook, followed by Twitter/X a year later and Instagram from 2019. 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. I now post daily on Instagram and Facebook, while the complete Twitter/X archive is searchable online.
Social media transformed what had largely been a personal interest into a public and increasingly collaborative project. People began contributing their own knowledge, memories, photographs and questions, often opening up new lines of research.
The project gradually expanded beyond social media. In 2016, I established Stoke Newington History Talks, bringing together researchers, historians and others with stories to tell about the area. Individual questions also developed into longer-term projects, including reconstructing the history of every shop on Stoke Newington Church Street, researching the campaign that saved Clissold Park, recording oral histories and surveying surviving features such as historic street signs and coalhole covers.
A Collaborative Project
As Stoke Newington History grew, my role expanded from carrying out and sharing my own research to creating ways for other people’s research, memories and knowledge to be recorded and shared.
Contributions from residents, former residents and their families have become an important part of the research. After years of seeking out information myself, photographs, documents, memories and historical questions are now regularly brought to me, adding new pieces to Stoke Newington’s story.
I have also built a personal collection of books, maps, photographs, postcards, programmes, directories, printed ephemera, objects and other material relating to Stoke Newington. This working collection supports my research alongside public archives, private collections, contemporary photography and local memories.
The research has become increasingly collaborative. I am part of a network of local historians and researchers who share discoveries, sources and questions, including through a WhatsApp research group I started in 2022. I have been fortunate to learn from and work alongside many fellow researchers and local history enthusiasts, including the late Stoke Newington historian Derek Baker and my friend Nick Perry, a passionate champion of heritage conservation, who sadly passed away in 2024.
From Research to Preservation
As the project has developed, my involvement has increasingly extended from researching and sharing history to helping preserve surviving parts of Stoke Newington’s heritage.
This has included leading the installation of a heritage plaque to Joseph Beck, campaigning for the restoration of historic borough street signs, supporting the restoration of the 1933 Stoke Newington Town Hall foundation stone after it was defaced, helping retain and display uncovered Victorian shop tiles, and working with residents, businesses, conservation groups and Hackney Council when local heritage is at risk.
In 2025, this took another form when the original hand-painted sign from T. J. Electrics, which had traded on Stoke Newington Church Street since 1972, was uncovered during the shop’s refit. I saved the sign from disposal at the last minute and, after the Science Museum expressed interest, worked with local research historian Tony Rich and others to help secure its acquisition. It entered the Science Museum’s permanent collection in 2026.
For me, these activities are part of the same process as the research: identifying and understanding what survives, documenting it and, where possible, helping ensure that significant traces of Stoke Newington’s past are not unnecessarily lost.
What I Do
Research
My research focuses primarily on the area defined by the former Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington, which existed from 1900 to 1965. Projects range from individual buildings and people to long-term studies of streets, businesses and the changing built environment.
Talks & Events
I regularly give talks about Stoke Newington’s history and have organised Stoke Newington History Talks since 2016. Each event brings together three speakers exploring different aspects of the area’s past. Recordings of many talks and my presentation slides are available online.
From the Talks Archive
Social Media
I share a piece of Stoke Newington history every day on Instagram and Facebook, including research discoveries, archival and contemporary photographs, maps, local memories and observations about changes to the streetscape. My Twitter/X archive is also searchable online.
Content & Projects
I create different ways to encounter local history outside conventional articles and talks. These include self-guided walks, visual “then and now” comparisons, local history drop-in sessions, publications, shop-window history displays and smaller creative projects such as Stoke Newington’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Poster.
Heritage Advocacy
I work with residents, businesses, councillors, conservation groups and others to protect and preserve surviving elements of Stoke Newington’s historic environment. This ranges from monitoring buildings and architectural details at risk to campaigning for restoration or finding new homes for material that might otherwise be lost.
Press & Appearances
My work has been featured on television and radio, in podcasts and in print publications. I have also contributed research and local knowledge to television productions and other media projects.
Contact
Please get in touch if you have memories, photographs or documents relating to Stoke Newington, or if you would like to invite me to give a talk.
Amir Dotan