Public Record Office, national archive service of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003
The Public Record Office is a Gothic Revival building on Chancery Lane in the City of London, completed in 1851 by Sir James Pennethorne. It has pointed arches, detailed stonework, and tall narrow proportions that give the facade a fortress-like look.
The building was constructed to house growing collections of government documents that had previously been kept in poor conditions at places like Westminster Abbey. In the 1990s, the holdings moved to The National Archives at Kew.
Chancery Lane has been associated with legal and government work for centuries, and this building fits naturally into that setting. Its pointed arches and heavy stonework were chosen to signal the weight and permanence of the documents once held inside.
The building is on Chancery Lane and easy to reach on foot from nearby transport links. It now serves as the Maughan Library for King's College London, so access inside is generally for registered library users, but the exterior can be seen freely from the street.
The building survived bombing during the Second World War, while many of the documents it held were moved to castles and underground stations for safety. Today it works as a library while keeping its original architecture almost entirely intact.
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