Unforgotten Lives, a new exhibition at London Metropolitan Archives, presents the stories of Londoners of African, Caribbean, Asian and Indigenous heritage who lived and worked in the city between 1560 and 1860 and are recorded in London’s archives. Exploring a range of experiences, these multi-layered stories speak of love, enterprise, wealth and family life; discrimination, hardship, resilience and resistance.

Informed by an ongoing research project which aims to reveal London’s complex and long-standing diversity and developed in partnership with Northeastern University London, the exhibition presents evidence of presence and community in documents created nearly 500 years ago. It celebrates well known figures from London’s past and introduces some of the thousands of names discovered in the archives.

Olaudah Equiano, a key figure in the movement to abolish slavery and member of the Sons of Africa, features with his daughter Joanna. The London life and family of Dean Mahomet is documented,  and a manuscript voting record of Ignatius Sancho from 1774, believed to be the first time that a person of African heritage voted in an election in Britain, is displayed for the first time at London Metropolitan Archives.

We also meet many less familiar Londoners discovered by the research project including a man from Bengal known as John Morgan who escorts a cheetah to London in the 1760s, street musician Ramo Sammy, photographed in 1877, and Prince Dederi Jaquoah who was baptised in the City of London in 1611.

Immersed in hundreds of years of London’s archives, Unforgotten Lives reveals glimpses of some of the 3300 people discovered by the research project to date, presenting their stories and their importance in the history of London.

A free exhibition at:

London Metropolitan Archive
40 Northampton Road
London EC1R 0HB

Mon, Tues, Thurs – 10am to 4.30pm
Weds – 10am to 7pm
Saturdays – one per month, check www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma