The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, named after General Władysław Sikorski, is a leading London-based museum and archive for research into Poland during World War II and the Polish diaspora.
It is a non-governmental organisation managed by scholars from the Polish community in the United Kingdom, housed at 20 Prince's Gate in West London, in a Grade II listed terrace on Kensington Road facing Hyde Park.It is incidentally part of the same Victorian development by Charles James Freake as the nearby Polish Hearth Club. Although the Institute is closer to the commercial centres of Kensington, it is just within the City of Westminster. In 1988 it merged with the formerly independent Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust.
It was created immediately on the conclusion of the Second World War, on 2 May 1945, to preserve the memory of the Polish Underground State in Occupied Poland, its links to the Polish government-in-exile initially in France then in London, the Polish armed forces in the West and their contribution to World War II. At that time the communist takeover of Poland made it hazardous if not impossible for many exiled Polish ex-servicemen and civilians to return to their native country, after one third of Poland's territory was ceded to the Soviet Union under the Yalta Accords and the native Polish civilian population killed or forcibly deported. It is also a research centre and museum and publisher of historical issues which were either banned or censored in the then People's Republic of Poland.
Activities
The Institute has conserved historical records, including witness records from the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, documents, regimental colours, military medals, uniforms, insignia, works of art, a library and many personal effects which had once belonged to Polish statesmen, diplomats, academics, military leaders and ordinary men and women. The Institute's unrivalled film and photographic archive of over 5,000 photographs was digitised by Karta during 2005-6 and is available in Poland for exhibitions and educational initiatives.[6] Around 2006 the Institute received a chance find of 2,000 photographs taken by photographer Jan Markiewicz of the early Polish community in 1950s South London, which a passer-by retrieved from a skip in Brixton.
​
Source: wikipedia
B: 0207 589 9249
20 Prince’s Gate, London, SW7 1PT