Local History Drop-In Sessions brought local history into a shopfront setting on Stoke Newington Church Street, giving people the chance to drop in with questions about the area’s past. These sessions opened up local history in a direct way. Rather than asking people to attend a talk on a set subject, they invited them to bring their own questions and curiosities.

Between 2022 and 2023, I hosted three sessions at Revere the Residence on Stoke Newington Church Street, kindly offered by the shop owner, Kate Revere. I ran the sessions with the late Nick Perry, Richard Young and Rachel Tobyn. People came with all sorts of questions, from the history of their street or building to local landmarks, lost features and old waterways. Some had heard about the sessions in advance, while others came in after spotting us from the street.

Using old maps, photographs, census records and other sources, we did our best to answer each question on the spot. The sessions created a simple and direct way for people to engage with Stoke Newington’s history, outside a formal talk or guided walk.

How the Sessions Worked

The format was informal. People were invited to come in for free, ask a question, and sit down with us while we looked through material and talked it through. That might mean tracing the history of a house, identifying a former building use, or helping someone make sense of a local story they had heard.

What made the sessions work was the mix of preparation and chance. We brought historical material with us, but the questions were led by whoever walked through the door. That made each session different.

Three Sessions, Three Evenings of Questions

First Session, 24 May 2022

We did not know what to expect during the first session, but over the course of the evening around 30 to 35 people came in with questions. Some had seen the event on social media, while others noticed the posters in the window and came in out of curiosity.

This first session showed there was real appetite for this kind of local history format, one that was free, conversational and open-ended.

Second Session, 22 November 2022

The second session brought another varied set of questions. People came to ask about the history of their street, the background of buildings they used every day, and the area more widely.

It also showed that the sessions were useful not just for long-standing residents, but for people who had moved to Stoke Newington more recently and wanted to understand the place better.

Third Session, 25 May 2023

By the third session, the format was well established. Once again we were asked about a wide range of subjects, from St Mary’s Lodge in Lordship Road to whether the Hackney Brook runs beneath the railway line at Rectory Road.

The third event captured the range of the sessions well: no single theme, just whatever people wanted to know about the history around them

Future Sessions

I hope to run further drop-in sessions in the future and continue this format of open, in-person engagement with local history.