UK Web Archive
The British Library's record of the UK web, collected under legal deposit — including sites their owners deleted years ago.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
UK Web Archive sits in Web Archives under Retro, filed as coffee break.
- Set aside five to fifteen minutes and give it your proper attention.
- It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
- It works with the sound off, so it is fine on a train or in a quiet office.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Go in expecting something brainy and nostalgic.
About this category: Archives, dead websites brought back and search pointed at the past. What the web looked like before it settled down.
Good for
- Filling a coffee break properly
- Giving your brain a workout
- A trip back to the older internet
- A quiet break at your desk
- Killing time on your phone
- Trying it with zero commitment
UK Web Archive: quick answers
Is UK Web Archive free?
Yes. UK Web Archive is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use UK Web Archive?
No. You can use UK Web Archive without signing up for anything.
Does UK Web Archive work on a phone?
Yes. UK Web Archive works on phones as well as desktop browsers.
Is UK Web Archive safe for work?
Yes, we file it as safe for work. It also works muted.
How long does UK Web Archive take?
We file it as "Coffee break": Five to fifteen minutes of proper attention.
More in Web Archives
All 12 in Web ArchivesThousands of themed collections built by libraries and museums, each one somebody's deliberate decision about what to keep.
- 10 min
Takes a permanent snapshot of a page on demand, including ones the Wayback Machine will not capture. Useful when a page is about to change.
- 2 min
The Portuguese web archive, notable for full-text search across its whole history rather than only address lookup.
- 10 min
Petabytes of crawled web pages released free for anyone to analyse. Most of the language models you have used started here.
- 1 hr+
- Desktop
Same mood: brainy
All brainy sitesThe community record of Cicada 3301, the recruitment puzzle whose final book has still never been deciphered.
You are an AI told to make paperclips, and you follow that instruction all the way to its conclusion. Four hours, one button to begin.
- 1 hr+
A roguelike you escape by editing the JavaScript that builds each level, which is considerably more forgiving than it sounds.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Every earthquake recorded anywhere in the last thirty days, sized by magnitude and clickable all the way down to the seismograph traces.
- <1 min
- Desktop
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
Have a site of your own? Suggest it for Detour or browse the AltFTool backlinks hub.