In the mid nineteenth century there was a shift in the methods used by scholars for understanding the history of ancient Jerusalem. Prior to this, the field was dominated by the writings of travelers and pilgrims that have provided us with uneven accounts of their explorations. Much of the information collated was made while visiting sites of biblical interest. However, a formal exploration of the antiquities in Jerusalem first began under the British, with the “Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem” conducted by Charles Wilson (1864–1865), which systematically mapped the Old City, the Temple Mount, major buildings, and the surroundings. This was followed by the work on the Haram al-Sharif walls and excavations elsewhere in the city undertaken by the intrepid Charles Warren and Henry Birtles (1867–1870). Ongoing mapping and recording of archaeological remains in Jerusalem was also one of the achievements of the Survey of Western Palestine in the 1870s. Further British-initiated archaeological work in the city was undertaken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by F. J. Bliss and A. C. Dickie, C. Schick, J. E. Hanauer, R. A. S. Macalister, and others. The founding of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the archaeological activities of J. W. Crowfoot, C. N. Johns, and others will also be discussed. Following World War II, a series of major excavations were undertaken in Jerusalem by (later dubbed Dame) Kathleen M. Kenyon, together with a number of collaborators, notably A. D. Tushingham. After the Six Day War, British archaeological work concentrated on surveys of prominent Mamluke and Ottoman buildings, but excavations ceased, except for some supervisory work in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The lecture will deal with the strengths and weaknesses of the British archaeological work undertaken until now in Jerusalem.