Our lift needs an upgrade.
When the Victoria Tower was built in the nineteenth century the only way of accessing its 12 floors was by a spiral staircase of 553 steps. Luckily for the staff working there, a lift was installed in 1963 which made their job of retrieving records a lot easier!
Since then, and with only a few interruptions for refurbishment and maintenance, the lift has made hundreds of thousands of journeys so that we can produce items for the public in our search room. Not surprisingly, and with its 50th birthday approaching, work is now necessary to ensure more years of service. The whole lift will be removed from its 98m shaft and replaced with a new one.
To undertake this work we need to close our public Search Room for four months during spring/summer 2013. Dates have not yet been finalised, but we are currently not taking any Search Room bookings between 1 April - 31 October 2013. If you are planning to visit our Search Room this year, please check our website for up-to-date closure dates. You are encouraged to make a visit before 31 March 2013 if at all possible.
During the closure, the Search Room will continue to open one day a week by appointment on a limited basis, for consultation of the following published material ONLY which is held in or near the Search Room:
• Reference books (references starting BOOK)
• Printed Journals of the House of Lords and House of Commons
• Printed Parliamentary Debates
• Statutes of the Realm 1225-1714
• Statutes at Large 1225-1869
• Printed Public General Acts 1869-present
• Printed Local Acts 1834-present
• Electronic resources
It will NOT be possible to retrieve any other material. Once the closure dates are finalised, we will also announce which day of the week we will open and take bookings for that day only.
Remote enquiries will continue to be answered throughout the closure period. However, document retrieval will be extremely limited. There are therefore likely to be delays in replying as staff may not be able to readily access all the material required. We will quote for copying orders, but it may not be possible to fulfil all copying orders during the closure period.
For more detailed information please see our Frequently Asked Questions.