There are no fiches, it's all on-line - the same Find my past site that we can all get, only you don't have to pay. They give you a password for your session and each monitor has a user name. You can have images printed, but it all adds to the cost of the trip (I THINK it was something like 80p a sheet) and it looked like you had to leave the computer to find someone to do it for you - might have taken longer than hand copying, though more accurate I grant you. Next time I go I'll have to investigate that.

You can only book an hour at a time when you arrive, but you can book further hours on the same day if there is availability - when your hour is up you have to queue up again at reception on the ground floor. When I went I was worried that the queue might be so long by the time I could get there that I might not get a single hour let alone a repeat, but as it happened on that day there was no queue, I got on straight away and there were always some terminals free - there are 60 dedicated to the 1911 census. Too bad I don't live closer!