Division within WORK1689-2002Records of the Directorate General of Works, its predecessors and successors, relating to royal, government and public buildings and works in the United Kingdom and overseas
Records of the Office of Works and successors, relating to the construction and maintenance of buildings and works for royal, government and other public uses, including ceremonial state occasions.
The records transferred to the Public Record Office have traditionally been arranged on a subject or function basis, normally consisting of parallel series of registered files (or earlier unregistered correspondence and papers) and of plans and drawings. Although for any subject or function, records in the registered file series and the corresponding series of plans and drawings cover many of the same buildings, structures and works, this is not always the case.
The bulk of the material in these series originated in various departments, branches and sections within the Directorate or Directorate General of Works and its predecessors and successors. Frequent re-registration as a result of administrative re-organisations, and subsequent arrangement of the records on a broadly thematic basis, have obscured the precise origin of some of the files.