To ask if there’s a way to find out the names of the people that have lived in your house?

[Foodtheif]

I know the name of the previous owner but wondered if there was a way to find out the names of other owners before them and since the house was built?

Yes, they will all be on the house deeds, so land registry.
Also local archives.

www.land-search-online.co.uk/information/who-lived-in-my-house/

Census (1911 and prior, 1921 released soon-ish) 1939 register. Electoral register (usually stored in local library or archives, even if people opt out you can still access the full register).

I was thinking of the census but the house was built in the 70’s and think I’d have to pay for that. I don’t mind too much though. I paid to look at a census a while ago when doing the family tree and found it fascinating.

You won't be able to see a modern census because of data protection. The electoral register will be your best bet, that is free to access.

The trouble with the electoral register is I seem to need to know peoples names. I can find the previous owners but obv don’t know the names of the owners that came before them. Can’t seem to search by address.

Some places have city directories that are kept in the city archives. I was able to trace our old house back to 1911 that way. Census records also work.

@Foodtheif no with the electoral register you only need to know the address (that's why it's publicly available, if it was searchable by name it would be closed due to data protection). For example in our archives we hold electoral registers going back decades, you'd look at the address for each year to see who was living there over a period of time. Obviously it would be dependent on them registering to vote.

House deeds will show who has owned the house in the past, as MyOpinion said.

Don't bother with online versions of the electoral register. Find out where your local archive/Record Office is, and arrange to go there to look at the originals (may be on microfilm/fiche); the registers are arranged by place/address within each year. Easy, and if you get stuck the staff will help you. It will only have adults/citizens, no kids or foreign residents not eligible to vote, but it's the best you've got. Check the website first to see if you need to book, ID to take, etc.

I was at my local history library yesterday and as PP says the older directories were in two sections: by name and by street. Probably not as far forward as the 1970s tho (I was looking at 1880s to 1930s).

I have the paper deeds to my house and it only shows the previous owner, the one we bought it from. There are no others listed even though the house is older than just the previous owner. I don't know why that is, I was expecting a list of previous owners but it is just not there.