'Love Letters' exhibition drives National Archives' busiest ever day

The National Archives in Kew's ongoing free exhibition 'Love Letters' is proving popular. Last Saturday (Valentine's Day) saw the highest number of visitors in a single day throughout the Archives' history!

Across time, people have sought connection in countless ways. From heartfelt declarations and calculated proposals to anonymous and desperate love songs.

The free exhibition features correspondence spanning more than 500 years of devotion, longing, sacrifice, heartache, and passion.

Covering royalty and parliamentarians, literary icons and unknown scribes, Love Letters opens the envelope on the stories behind the documents and the consequences of their being, from eternal blessing to execution.

This revealing exhibition has not only letters, but declarations of love in other forms, including poems and drawings, official memorials and wills.

Encompassing forbidden relationships and family members separated by distance and circumstance, Love Letters will offer a rare glimpse into personal emotions captured in a government collection – tender, intimate and deeply human.

The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday each week until 12 April 2026.

Learn more about Love Letters.