Special Collections

Special Collections holds a unique and diverse collection of film and TV ephemera. It includes personal and working papers from individuals and organisations involved in film and TV production. The collections also hold programmes, tickets, autographed letters and promotional material, as well as over 20,000 pressbooks and other cinema memorabilia.

There are donations from Sir Carol Reed, Lord Puttnam, Joseph Losey, Derek Jarman, Michael Balcon and many others. In total there are 500 collections, including a collection of over 20,000 unpublished film and TV scripts from Britain and around the world.

Special Collections holds memorabilia only. For information about films and television programmes held by the BFI National Archive, please see BFI National Archive pages.

Viewing the collections

Temporary changes to BFI Special Collections access

From 28 April 2008 until further notice, access to special collections will be restricted to Tuesdays and Thursdays, subject to staff availability.  If users have already made appointments, as of 14 April, outside of these times, efforts will be made to honour these, but anyone making new appointments will need to be aware of the new arrangements. These are necessitated by staff shortages and the fact that the current Head of Special Collections will be retiring in August 2008. Once a successor is in post, access arrangements will be reviewed.

Special Collections may now be consulted in the Library Reading Room at the table designated. There is room for up to four researchers to have access at a time.

Please register at the reading room counter upon arrival and state that you are using special collections. You will need to be an annual Library member.

Please note that an appointment system will continue to operate, i.e. researchers must keep to their allotted times and days, access will not be open-ended. Failure to keep appointments, without letting special collections staff know beforehand, may result in loss of future access.

Researchers may continue to consult collections after 5.30pm, when the reading room remains open until 8.00pm, and throughout the lunch-hour, although special collections staff will not be available. Please return all material to counter staff on these occasions, and make it clear if the items are finished with or need to be retained. During office hours, please return the material to special collections staff.

The copying or typing of complete documents directly into notebooks or onto laptops is illegal in the UK, so please restrict your use of the collections to simple note-taking.

From 7 April 2008 the charge for staff photocopying of non-script materials from special collections will increase to 30p per sheet. If you require material to be copied, please speak to a member of special collections staff.

bfi Special Collections

21 Stephen Street

London W1T 1LN

Tel: 020 7957 4772

Fax: 020 7436 2338

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