Cinehub East

Luton Libraries have a great collection of materials to help you discover the history and development of Luton and the surrounding area, your own family history, or the history of your house. There are books, newspapers, pamphlets, microfilms and microfiches, cuttings and maps. The collection includes local newspapers on microfilm going back to 1874, the parish registers for Bedfordshire, and the census for Luton going back to 1841. There is a small collection of photographs illustrating the history of Luton, and there is a larger collection at Wardown Museum. We regret we are unable to make copies of these.

The map collection includes local town and county maps showing how Luton has developed over the past 150 years. Some of the maps are large scale and show the outline of individual properties. There are also some beautiful copies of insurance plans, produced by Goad, showing the businesses in the hat industry, in the centre of town around the late 1800s and early 1900s.

You can find information on the Luton hat industry by visiting the Local Studies web site.

Luton Libraries has a subscription to Ancestry.com which provides access to all of the UK census from 1841 to 1901, and also the General Register Office indexes to birth, marriages and deaths. Just show your library ticket at any Luton Library and a member of staff can log you on. Visit the Information, IT and Learning section for details of regular taster sessions to demonstrate what is available on Ancestry.

For more detailed information on what is available at Luton Central Library, please check out the links below. Don't forget there are resources available at other centres, including Wardown Museum, Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Libraries, and the Bedfordshire and Luton Archive and Record Office.