Planning Your Visit

The Historical & Digital Archive Search Rooms are open 9:00-16:30, Monday to Friday.

When planning your visit to our search rooms, please ensure you read the following as part of our Conditions of Access:

• Personal items must be deposited in a locker on the ground floor. This requires a £1 coin or token to operate. See ‘What can I take into the search room’ for permitted items
• Seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis
• In the interests of other readers, please observe silence in the Historical Search Room except when consulting a member of staff
• Mobile phones and other electrical equipment should be switched to silent and used only for still photography without flash (once you have checked with staff whether original records may be photographed)
• No photography of any kind is permitted in the Digital Archive Search Room
• Please let staff know if you intend to leave your desk for more than an hour, we may return the records you are consulting to store
• The use of tablets / laptops is permitted at the owner’s own risk; public Wi-Fi is available
•  We encourage regular hand-washing when handling records. If you wish to use hand sanitiser, please only use the sanitiser supplied by NRS, which has been approved by our Conservation section
• Please be courteous and respectful to staff, they are there to help and guide you as much as possible