It’s been an exciting week for Historypin as we launched our first-ever book, London Local Pubs: Past and Present, created in collaboration with local pubs and the National Brewery Heritage Trust. London Local pubs tells the stories of 52 pubs through stunning historical photographs and memories shared by pub landlords and regulars at community archiving gatherings.

The Magpie & Stump in central London hosted the launch which brought together over 100 people from across the pub, beer and brewing world, many of the licensees and regulars who contributed their stories and memories to the book and author Adrian Tierney-Jones.

We were also excited to be joined by Pubs Minister Marcus Jones MP, whose speech emphasised that London Local Pubs not only showcases the architectural and historical value of pubs, but highlights that pubs are about people and the friendships and connections that they spark and sustain.

The 52 pubs included in the book are just a snapshot of the larger collection of photographs which total 3,500 images of nearly 1,000 pubs. People were able to explore the whole collection, digitised by Pete and his team at Heritage Assets so printed copies can be purchased and mapped on Historypin to be explored and enriched.

To cap it all, there was even a chance to sample a resurrected Charringtons IPA, provided by the National Brewery Centre’s resident brewer.

With the beer flowing and speeches by Marcus Jones MP, National Brewery Heritage Trust’s Robert Humphreys and Harry White, as well as our own Nick Stanhope, the night was a great celebration of the local British pub and collaborative community archiving.

To find out more about London Local Pubs and to get your own copy, visit www.londonlocalpubs.com

The London Local Pubs: Past and Present book has been made possible by Europeana Food and Drink. All photographs are by Cath Harries.