Heritage Centre

Discover how Lloyd's Register Foundation is harnessing our heritage to shape a safer and more sustainable ocean economy for the future.

+1,100,000

Our collection holds over 1.1m documents concerning the construction, maintenance and development of ships from the 1830s until the 1960s. The collection is freely available to all.

Source

A photograph of the She Sees exhibition in Portsmouth.

Without learning from the past, we cannot tackle the maritime challenges of the present.

For more than 260 years, through three industrial revolutions, Lloyd’s Register has been ensuring that ships, their crews and their cargoes are safe to go to sea. This focus on maritime safety has always been critical to the ocean economy.

Today, as the maritime sector navigates a range of new challenges of climate change, maintaining sustainable global supply chains and meeting vital net zero targets, is it important that we look back to examine the lessons we can learn from the past to help chart our course to a safer and more sustainable future.

At the heart of this learning process is the Lloyd’s Register Foundation archive, a unique research resource offering unparalleled reserves of data and knowledge regarding the evolution of maritime safety and the complex factors that drive this process.

Cared for and curated by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage Centre, the archive is open to all, both in person at our historic home at 71 Fenchurch Street, London, and online via our growing range of digitised assets.

The Foundation is working with a diverse range of partners across the globe to unlock both the value of this archive and of a ‘learning from the past’ approach to maritime safety and sustainability challenges more broadly.

Explore our work in this area below, or visit the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage Centre website to find out more and explore our archive.

Help us make a difference

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Live heritage grants.

Countries receiving funding in this area.

£6.7m

Total value grant portfolio.

Alex Stitt Director of the Heritage Centre

Drawing on our extensive archive, the Foundation is in a unique position to help chart a safe and sustainable future for the ocean economy using lessons from our past.

Explore our programmes

Arctic Maritime Safety

How can lessons from the past be helpful in addressing today's challenges to the safety of people in the Arctic Ocean economy.

Two children taking part in an activity at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Creating ocean citizens for a safer world

“Over 70% of our blue planet is covered in water, and more than half of all the oxygen we breathe comes from ocean plants. We rely on the ocean for food security, transportation, coastal defences and much more.”

Project Tangaroa

Building a global coalition to clean up potentially polluting wrecks

What type of records does the Heritage Centre hold?

Heritage Centre record data

Latest news

This page was published on 13/05/2025

This page is approximately a 4 minute read

Marine heatwaves and sea ice: implications for Arctic navigational safety

In this blog, Dr Bahareh Kamranzad discusses how her research will support Arctic navigational safety in a rapidly changing climate.

Claudio and Anish World Maritime University

This page was published on 01/04/2025

This page is approximately a 4 minute read

Learning from historical maritime accidents and cultural exchange in the Canadian Arctic

In this blog, fellows Claudio Aporta and Anish Hebbar from the World Maritime University explain how their project with UArctic will improve our understanding of historical interactions between Inuit and whalers in the Canadian Arctic, and their lessons for maritime safety.

entry from the first Lloyd's Register book

This page was published on 20/02/2025

This page is approximately a 3 minute read

Major grant to fund research into the history of transatlantic slavery

The National Archives has been awarded a £1 million grant by Lloyd’s Register Foundation for a new, collaborative research programme on the history of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people.

Ice breaker in North Pole, Arctic - stock photo

This page was published on 18/02/2025

This page is approximately a 3 minute read

UArctic x LRF Research Fellows appointed to address maritime safety challenges in the Arctic

The University of the Arctic (UArctic), in collaboration with Lloyd’s Register Foundation, has announced the recipients of five esteemed research fellowships, supported by the Foundation through our newly established joint initiative.

Total ships built between 1740-1984

Heritage Centre ship data

Meet our experts

Alex Stitt

Director of the Heritage Centre

Alex is the Director of the Heritage Centre at Lloyd's Register Foundation.

Louise Sanger

Head of Research, Interpretation and Engagement

Louise leads the Heritage Centre's research, interpretation, and engagement strategy, guiding stakeholders in advancing maritime safety. She shares specialist knowledge to highlight the importance of maritime history for the ocean economy. Her team develops flagship projects and key research themes, generating insights that inspire long-term change.

Max Wilson

Senior Archivist

As the Centre’s Senior Archivist Max assists the management, development and accessibility of the archive and heritage collections, with oversight of preservation/conservation, acquisitions, selection, archive arrangement, appraisal and cataloguing.

Visit the Heritage Centre website

Browse unique research and collections, a treasure trove for maritime heritage data, research and initiatives.

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