The Lock-down Diaries is a Lambeth Archives project to collect local people’s experiences of the Corona virus epidemic in Lambeth. The project is to encourage people living in the borough to start keeping, and then to send to the Archives, copies of diaries documenting their lives right now.

The Archives is interested in hearing from anyone in the borough, young and old. We are particularly interested in the experiences of people whose lives have been dramatically changed, or overwhelmed, by recent events: NHS staff in Kings or St Thomas’, public health workers in the council, or anyone whose working life has been transformed by the current lock down.

The last pandemic to strike Lambeth was the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918-20, when thousands died across London. Apart from some local press reporting and medical officers’ reports there is almost no documentation in the archives of what that pandemic meant for ordinary people’s lives in Lambeth. The Lock-down diaries project seeks to make our current experiences much better documented.
To participate and to find out more contact archives@lambeth.gov.uk or by Twitter @LambethArchives .