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British Newspaper Archive
The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitised archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011.
The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London until 2013, and is now divided between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The library has an almost complete collection of British and Irish newspapers since 1840. This is partly because of the legal deposit legislation of 1869, which required newspapers to supply a copy of each edition of a newspaper to the library. London editions of national daily and Sunday newspapers are complete back to 1801. In total, the collection consists of 660,000 bound volumes and 370,000 reels of microfilm containing tens of millions of newspapers with 52,000 titles on 45 km of shelves.
After the closure of Colindale in November 2013, access to the 750 million original printed pages was maintained via an automated and climate-controlled storage facility in Boston Spa, which opened in April 2014.
Printed pages which are available to subscribers include news articles covering issues of local and regional importance, family notices, letters to editors written by newspaper readers, obituaries and advertisements.
As of 2025, it is owned by the family history company Findmypast, which is part of DC Thomson.
In May 2010, a ten-year programme of digitisation of the newspaper archives with commercial partner DC Thomson subsidiary Brightsolid began. In November 2011, BBC News reported on the launch of the British Newspaper Archive, an initiative to facilitate online access to over one million pages of pre-20th century newspapers. The same newspapers from this partnership have also been made available to view on Findmypast and Genes Reunited.
As well as scanning of original paper copy, the project also scanned from microfilm copies that had been created by the British Library over the years. The digitisation project established an online search facility that people could consult without having to visit the British Library newspaper depository in person.
In 2021, Findmypast and the British Library announced an extension of their long-term partnership in the British Newspaper Archive. They said that a further 14 million pages would be added to the online archive over the following three years, including 1 million free-to-access pages each year.
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British Newspaper Archive
The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitised archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011.
The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London until 2013, and is now divided between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The library has an almost complete collection of British and Irish newspapers since 1840. This is partly because of the legal deposit legislation of 1869, which required newspapers to supply a copy of each edition of a newspaper to the library. London editions of national daily and Sunday newspapers are complete back to 1801. In total, the collection consists of 660,000 bound volumes and 370,000 reels of microfilm containing tens of millions of newspapers with 52,000 titles on 45 km of shelves.
After the closure of Colindale in November 2013, access to the 750 million original printed pages was maintained via an automated and climate-controlled storage facility in Boston Spa, which opened in April 2014.
Printed pages which are available to subscribers include news articles covering issues of local and regional importance, family notices, letters to editors written by newspaper readers, obituaries and advertisements.
As of 2025, it is owned by the family history company Findmypast, which is part of DC Thomson.
In May 2010, a ten-year programme of digitisation of the newspaper archives with commercial partner DC Thomson subsidiary Brightsolid began. In November 2011, BBC News reported on the launch of the British Newspaper Archive, an initiative to facilitate online access to over one million pages of pre-20th century newspapers. The same newspapers from this partnership have also been made available to view on Findmypast and Genes Reunited.
As well as scanning of original paper copy, the project also scanned from microfilm copies that had been created by the British Library over the years. The digitisation project established an online search facility that people could consult without having to visit the British Library newspaper depository in person.
In 2021, Findmypast and the British Library announced an extension of their long-term partnership in the British Newspaper Archive. They said that a further 14 million pages would be added to the online archive over the following three years, including 1 million free-to-access pages each year.