Sir John Soane and the Design of the New State Paper Office, 1829-1834.

This paper examines the design and building of the New Slate Paper Office in Duke Street, London by the architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837). the only purpose built repository for national records in England before Sir James Pennethorne's Public Record Office Building opened in Chancery Lane in 1856. It draws on published accounts, material in the Office of Works, and Treasury papers in The National Archives. and on Sir John Soane's extensive business archive and office drawings preserved in his House-Museum, which he left to the nation on his death in 1837. Soane's design for the building is examined particularly in respect to his solutions for fire-proofing and security, and compared with contemporary practice and the solutions adopted in the Public Record Office building of twenty years later. The final section deals with the building in use from 1834, its amalgamation with the Public Record Office in 1854, and its demolition in 1862. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]