Amir Dotan: Researching, Preserving and Sharing Stoke Newington’s History Since 2012
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.
Continue reading “A Searchable Archive of 12 Years of My Stoke Newington History Twitter/X Posts”
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.
Thank you to everyone who came to the 27th Stoke Newington History Talks at St Matthias Halls. As always, it sold out quickly and was packed. Alexandra Taylor spoke on the 1910–1912 attempt to ban rollerskating on pavements, a dispute with the London County Council that reached Winston Churchill and even the King. Jay Derrick shared findings from documents discovered in the Mildmay Club roof. My talk explored Paradise Row, once home to abolitionists, scientists and bankers, many of them Quakers. The event raised £678 for Hackney Giving.
Continue reading “12.03.2026 – Stoke Newington History Talks 27”
A new dedicated site is now live for The History of Every Shop in Stoke Newington Church Street, a major strand of my ongoing research into the commercial history of Church Street. Drawing on years of work documented in the master spreadsheet, it brings that research into a more accessible and engaging form through an interactive timeline that can be filtered and sorted in different ways, a photo survey of shopfronts, and an insight page that highlight wider patterns in occupancy, change and continuity from the 1840s to the present day.
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A feature was published today on the Hackney Post website about my funding application, currently under review, to restore nine historic street signs. The application, submitted on behalf of the Hackney Society, outlines a proposed collaboration with Hackney Council. The council would handle the technical restoration, while the Hackney Society and I would lead the community outreach, aiming to raise awareness, understanding and appreciation of the restored signs and their historical importance.
Continue reading “Featured in the Hackney Post: My Bid to Fund Historic Street Sign Restoration”
The latest issue of Spaces, the Hackney Society’s newsletter, includes a short piece I wrote about two ghost shop signs recently uncovered and saved on Stoke Newington Church Street. These old signs sometimes appear when modern fascias are removed, giving a glimpse of long-gone businesses that have been preserved in an old, hand-painted sign.
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The 26th Stoke Newington History Talks took place on Thursday 30 October 2025 at St Matthias Halls. Nigel Smith gave a fascinating talk based on a trove of archival documents, revealing the day-to-day running, bureaucracy and social history of the Savoy Cinema on Stoke Newington Road. Neil Martinson shared his experiences photographing Stoke Newington since the 1960s, reflecting on how the area has changed and showing recent images alongside those taken over forty years ago. My talk explored old shop signs briefly uncovered when modern signage is removed, revealing personal and family stories behind several such discoveries in the area.
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I’ve been a huge fan of the series Who Do You Think You Are? for many years, so it was a real thrill to be contacted earlier this year by the series’ magazine for an article about my 2021 crowdsourcing project to transcribe the 1886 petition that helped save Clissold Park. Featured in the September edition of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, the piece highlights the 11,000-signature petition raised by residents of Stoke Newington, Hackney and Islington to stop the sale of the land that would become Clissold Park, and tells the story of how I initiated, organised, coordinated and managed a community-wide effort that brought together 40 volunteers from across the country to digitally transcribe this remarkable document.
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On 15 September, I met with councillors Sarah Young (Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport), Sheila Suso-Runge (Heritage Champion) and Richard Lufkin, together with representatives from Hackney Council’s Streetscene team, to discuss the future of Stoke Newington’s surviving historic street signs. At that meeting it was agreed that applying to the Hackney Community Fund is the only viable way to raise the money needed for their restoration. This has now kicked off the process of preparing a funding application in partnership with The Hackney Society and Streetscene. The application deadline is 6 October.
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Since launching my social media channels in 2012 (Facebook), 2013 (X, formerly Twitter) and 2019 (Instagram), I have mostly focused on sharing photos that explore Stoke Newington’s history. This approach has helped build an engaged and growing audience. However, I’ve recently made a change. After noticing that Instagram and Facebook promote short-form video (Reels) more heavily than still images, especially to people who don’t already follow my accounts, I’ve started creating and sharing short Reels. These clips are usually around 30 to 40 seconds long and allow my content to reach a broader audience. You can browse all the Reels I’ve created so far in this Google Drive folder.
Continue reading “Embracing Reels to Bring Stoke Newington’s History to Life”
Stoke Newington History 