Places associated with T. E. Lawrence in and near London

14 Barton Street
Lawrence used a room in the attic of this house (which was occupied at the time by the officers of the architect Sir Herbert Baker) as an occasional home between 1918 and 1931. He wrote most of the second and third drafts of Seven Pillars of Wisdom there, as well as parts of his translation of Homer's Odyssey. The house, owned by Westminster School, is not open to the public.

British Museum
The Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities holds the records of the Carchemish Excavations where Lawrence worked between 1911 and 1914. Under the terms of the excavation permit, all the Carchemish finds were the property of the Turkish Government. However, the Department holds casts made by Lawrence and Woolley at the site, as well as objects they purchased for the Museum from other sites nearby. The records include reports, letters, notebooks and a large number of photographs taken by Lawrence. There are further papers relating to the excavations in the Museum archives. These materials are not on public display.

On-line:

The Courtauld Institute of Art

The photographic library holds the negatives of a series of photographs of Jeddah taken by Lawrence in 1921 (a set of prints from these negatives is held in the Bodleian Library T. E. Lawrence reserve collection).

On-line:

 The Imperial War Museum
Holds an interesting collection formed by gift and purchase. Through the good offices of B. H. Liddell Hart, Lawrence presented to the museum the collection of photographs he had formed (taken by himself and others) of the Arab Revolt. The photographic department also holds a collection illustrating the Imperial Camel Corps expedition in Syria. The galleries contain Lawrence's rifle and other memorabilia from the Arab Revolt. The Art Department holds works by James McBey including a portrait of Lawrence painted at Damascus in October 1918, a head of Lawrence by Derwent Wood, and other materials. The museum holds a very large collection of printed books relating to the First World War. This has been enlarged by a bequest of T. E. Lawrence materials from the collection of Valerie Freeman. The Museum also holds the research archive formed by Phillip Knightley and Colin Simpson during their work on The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia.

On-line:

King's College, London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Documents held include a large number of interesting documents among the papers of B. H. Liddell Hart (excluding letters by and about Lawrence now at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center), and a very important collection known as the Akaba Archive, which consists mainly of the papers of Colonel Pierce Joyce. Other relevant collections include papers of General Allenby. The Centre also holds Liddell Hart's working library, including books by and about T. E. Lawrence.

On-line:

The on-line catalogue, accessed via the home-page, includes a listing of the personal papers held and a detailed catalogue of the Liddell Hart archive. 

National Portrait Gallery
The NPG, which hosted the Lawrence of Arabia Centenary Exhibition in 1988-9, holds three sketches of Lawrence by Augustus John, a bronze cast of Eric Kennington's 1926 head of Lawrence, and Kennington's pastel portrait of General Allenby (commissioned as an illustration for Seven Pillars of Wisdom). For its T. E. Lawrence Exhibition, the NPG borrowed from the Tate Gallery one of the two copies made by Eric Kennington of the recumbent effigy of Lawrence in St Martin's Church, Wareham. This was subsequently retained on display.

On-line:

Palestine Exploration Fund
Holds documents and photographs relating to Lawrence's part in the PEF Sinai Survey of 1913-14, and a small number of Lawrence letters relating to publication of The Wilderness of Zin. The offices of the Fund are not open to the public.

Public Record Office
Holds an extremely large and important collection of documents relating to Lawrence's wartime and other military service, and to his work in the Colonial Office. The collection includes many original reports, letters, telegrams, and minutes. Relevant papers include the archives of the Arab Bureau, the Peace Conference, the British Cabinet, the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the Army, and the Air Force. Some of these materials must now be read on microfilm.

On-line:

  the class-list catalogue is a useful starting point, but is by no means exhaustive or detailed.

Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon
The library holds a series of letters from Lawrence to A. S. Frere-Reeves, copies of Lord Trenchard's RAF papers, and many other materials relevant to Lawrence's service years in the RAF.

On-line:

Tate Gallery
Holds perhaps the most famous oil portrait of Lawrence, by Augustus John, and other works of art related to Lawrence. The collections are well described in the on-line catalogue.

On-line:  

RAF Uxbridge
Lawrence passed through the recruits' training course at Uxbridge when he first enlisted, as described in The Mint. The station is not open to the public. A few buildings from Lawrence's time survive. For more information see Keith Harden, 'The Mint illustrated' in Journal of the T. E. Lawrence Society Vol. II No. 2, Winter 1992-3 (pp. 44-60)

On-line:

RAF website, giving current information about all aspects of the RAF, as well as its history