Black Britain and Asian Britain

The British Library offers many resources for the study of Black and Asian history, politics, culture and creative arts in Britain. Our collections also reflect the long and turbulent histories of race and empire, as well as post-colonialism. They include music, books, journals, archives and manuscripts, newspapers, maps and photographs, prints and drawings, web pages and stamps. We also offer a range of relevant events.

Collection guides

Asian Britain: publications
Books, journals, magazines, pamphlets and zines, e-books, websites and more
Asian Britain: archives and manuscripts
Significant resources relating to Asian Britain among our archival and manuscript collections
Asian Britain: music and audiovisual
Rich and wide-ranging collections, especially of music and recorded sound
Black Britain: publications
Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and zines, e-books, websites and more
Black Britain: archives and manuscripts
Resources relating to Black Britain in our archive and manuscript collections
Black Britain: music and audiovisual
Rich and wide-ranging collections, especially of music and recorded sound

View all related guides

Help

Subjects

Contemporary Britain

Collections reflecting contemporary British society and culture

Africa

Historical and contemporary material for the study of Africa

South Asia

Resources for the study of South Asia, past and present.

Southeast Asia

Manuscripts and publications in Southeast Asian languages

East Asia

Resources for the study of East Asian languages and cultures

Americas

Extensive collections from the Americas and Oceania

St Pancras Reading Rooms

At St Pancras we have 11 Reading Rooms, each specialising in a different subject area or type of material and with different opening hours. In our Reading Rooms you can:

Consult books, journals and other items from our collections
Access a wide range of electronic resources and electronic journals
Consult subject guides, bibliographies and other research aids

If you need help, please ask our Reference Specialists at the enquiry desks or contact the Reference Service.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Blog posts

Andrew Salkey Archive – Mapping the Caribbean Diaspora through Letters

Friday, May 19, 2023

Natalie Lucy talks about their project mapping the Caribbean Diaspora through the letters of Andrew Salkey. I am a PhD student at UCL. I started a part-time placement at the British Library in September which finished at the end of...

Mapping Caribbean Diasporic Networks through the Correspondence of Andrew Salkey

Friday, March 31, 2023

This is a guest post by Natalie Lucy, a PhD student at University College London, who recently undertook a British Library placement to work on a project Mapping Caribbean Diasporic Networks through the correspondence of Andrew Salkey. Project Objectives The...

Working with teachers to develop sessions on teaching Partition

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

The Partition of India represents a pivotal moment in British history, and the new Voices of Partition resource is aimed at providing sources to teachers so they can gain an understanding of the nature of Britain’s relationship to India and...

A Year In Three Wikithons: The Lord Chamberlain's Plays

Monday, February 6, 2023

The second year of the Wikimedia residency has allowed us to pay specific attention to the work being done on the Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, specifically the excellent research project work by Professor Kate Dossett (University of Leeds). Kate teaches American...

Case studies

…The UK Web Archive is a fantastic resource for researchers…

Neema used the UK Web Archive to explore how ethnic minorities voted in the EU Referendum.

Melissa Bennett - Collaborative Doctoral Partnership

…Everyone is really willing to help each other out…

Melissa is doing collaborative PhD research on photographs of the British West India Regiments between 1865-1914.

…A collaborative PhD with the British Library gives me the means to access a public audience…

Ruth uses the digitised newspaper collection to explore attitudes towards immigration in nineteenth century Britain.

…The archival material provides fascinating insights…

Christian is evaluating the archival material of Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adriaan Bake.

…we felt like we had a bond with everybody…

Jessica Rodgers took part in our Writing London project in 2012 engaging young people aged 16-24, outside of formal education, with library and heritage collections.