The Public Record Office

The building is a public building, originally known as The Public Record Office, now the Maughan Library (King’s College London). The original eastern section, partially within the City of London, was built between 1853 and 1855 by Sir James Pennethorne. It was extended with a frontage onto Chancery Lane between 1891 and 1896 by Sir John Taylor, incorporating a reconstructed 13th-century archway from the Rolls Chapel. Pennethorne’s work is of Bath stone with lead roofs, while Taylor’s extension is of Portland stone, both rock faced with ashlar dressings.

Pennethorne’s design is remarkable for its fireproof construction, featuring individual document cells built of wrought iron, shallow arched brick vaults, and cast iron girders. The Perpendicular Gothic style is used functionally in the elevations; Taylor continued this style in a more elaborate manner.

The main Chancery Lane frontage is symmetrical, with a central archway resembling a gatehouse, flanked by polygonal turrets topped with stone ogee cupolas. The building extends east-west, featuring a central gatehouse and a square tower above, alongside a more asymmetrical range with polygonal turrets facing Fetter Lane. Pennethorne's work is characterised by prominent mullion-buttresses articulating the fully glazed window bays, with depressed triangular arches over the top floor, below a pierced parapet and crocketed finials. Taylor’s extension uses similar detailing, but with closer-spaced mullions dividing the window lights. The chancel arch from the demolished 13th-century Rolls Chapel was reconstructed against the southeastern end of the Chancery Lane block. Important Renaissance monuments from the chapel are now located in the Record Office museum.