The surviving parts of Layton’s collection can be found in several locations. The books, manuscripts, maps and prints are kept with the Local Studies Collection at Hounslow Library. Apart from the sword which Layton gave to the British Museum, most of the objects are at the Museum of London, though a few are at Gunnersbury Park Museum. Layton also presented fossil bones from the Kew Bridge Railway cutting to the British Museum and these form part of the research collections at the Natural History Museum.

 

The British Museum‘s Collections website

Hounslow Libraries – this link takes you to the Advanced Search page of the library catalogue. Scroll to find the drop-down box for “Select Branch” – “Invalid key:22” is actually the Layton Collection. “Search” will take you to all the books – or refine your search with the criteria boxes and then “search”.

Gunnersbury Park Museum

The Museum of London lists 1402 of Layton’s objects in Collections Online. Type “Layton” into the search bar

The Museum of London’s London Before London gallery displays a large number of objects collected by Layton

History of our collections – about antiquarians, collectors and dealers on the Museum of London website provides a context for Layton’s collecting

Thames Pilot lists River Thames material from numerous collections and includes a selection of prints, books and manuscripts from Layton’s collection

The Book Catalogue. An electronic catalogue searchable by keyword, title, author, subject and dates.