Blythe House

Blythe House is a listed building located at 23 Blythe Road, West Kensington,

Blythe House was built between 1899 and 1903 as the Headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, which had outgrown its previous offices at Queen Victoria Street. By 1902 the Bank had 12,000 branches and more than 9 million accounts, with some 4,000 headquarters staff.^[2]

The complex included a post office, "intended mainly to deal with the extensive official correspondence involved in the work of the Savings Bank."^[3] The post office handled a ton of post (about 100,000 letters) every working day.^[4] The post office building still houses the West Kensington delivery office.

The main hall on the ground floor gave access to the offices of the Controller and his staff, and also the Public Enquiry Office. The first floor housed the correspondence branches, while the ledger branches were on the floors above. The top floor was mostly taken up with dining rooms and a kitchen.^[3]

Approximately 1,000 of the staff were female; to avoid the risk of improper mixing of the sexes, females were segregated in the south block of the building, which had its own entrance.^[5]

The work of the Bank increased greatly during the

By the 1930s continuing increases in the Bank's business, and the proposed move of the Savings Certificate department to Blythe House,[7] necessitated further expansion and Treasury authority for a western extension was given in 1938.^[8] However, presumably because of the looming threat of war, the scheme was omitted from the Ministry of Works building programme, and planning postponed indefinitely.^[9] The western extension was never built.

In 1963 the government announced that the Bank's main centre of operations would be moved to Glasgow, in line with its general policy of dispersing civil service departments out of London. A small headquarters staff remained in London, moving to Charles House on Kensington High Street.^[10] The Bank finally vacated Blythe House in the early 1970s.

• 
  The main block of Blythe House, in c.1924
• 
  The eastern extension of Blythe House, with the post office in front
• 
  Female clerks attending to savings ledgers
• 
  Clerks operating adding machines c.1924
• 
  Machines used to fold envelopes for the Savings Bank's extensive correspondence
• 
  1930s clerks preparing daily balances
• 
  The Post Office Savings Bank logo in mosaic on the east wall of Blythe House

Proposed and temporary uses

After the Savings Bank dispersal was announced, several proposals were made for the Blythe House site.

It was rumoured that the restaurant chain J. Lyons and Co., whose food preparation factory Cadby Hall was adjacent to Blythe House, wanted to acquire the site.^[12]

Hammersmith Chess Club used Blythe House as their home venue for a period of time in the mid 70s, having moved on from a draughty and cold St Paul's Church Hall nearby.^[13]

In the summer of 1979 Blythe House was used for the temporary exhibition of gifts to the Queen from the All-Japan Handicraft Cultural Association, given in connection with the Silver Jubilee celebrations.^[14]

Museum stores

In 1979 Blythe House was formally acquired by the Government from the Savings Bank for £6.5m,

• The British Museum from previous stores at Crayford, Kent; Shepherdess Walk; and Edgware Road.^[18]
• The
  Science Museum, including items from the Wellcome Trust collections; a conservation laboratory, a photographic studio, and a quarantine area where newly arrived items are examined.^[19]
• The
  The National Archives; and Hounslow), including the Archive of Art and Design; the Beatrix Potter Collections; the V&A Theatre and Performance Archives; and the V&A's own institutional archive.^[20]

In 2015 the government announced it was selling the building and asked the museums to find a new home for their collections. [21] The Science Museum will vacate the building in 2024 having moved 300,000 objects to Wroughton near Swindon. ^[22]

Architecture

Blythe House was designed by the

Blythe House and the associated post office were listed grade II in 2004.^[2][4]

Film location

Blythe House was used as a location for television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Minder and The New Avengers. The building is featured extensively as the fictional headquarters of "The Circus" in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.^[26] Used as exterior shots of ITV drama The Halcyon and the Netflix series The Crown.

Used to portray a hospital in the film The Father.

Notable people

• Michael Collins was employed as a boy clerk at Blythe House from July 1906 – April 1910.^[27][28][29]

References