UPDATED 31/7/13
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 and to undertake this work we have closed our public Search Room for three months.
• We cannot take any bookings from Monday 15 July - Friday 2 August inclusive
• We cannot take any bookings for Tuesdays to Fridays from Tuesday 6 August - Friday 1 November inclusive
• From Monday 5 August for the rest of the closure period we will open on Mondays ONLY from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 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
- Statutes of the Realm 1225-1714
- Statutes at Large 1225-1869
- Printed Parliamentary Debates
- Printed Public General Acts 1869-present
- Electronic resources Printed Local Acts 1834-present
It is essential that you specify the published material you wish to view when requesting a Monday appointment. On those Mondays it will not be possible to retrieve any other material.
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.