Catalogue description Office of Works and successors: Deeds Registers

For the Ledgers the arrangement is largely chronological. However, prior to 1922 there was no available data column to indicate the 'date of entry' in the ledger and it would appear that the 'when by whom deposited' column was used for this purpose.

After 1922 the ledger design changed from single page format to double page format enabling the inclusion of specific columns for 'Registered Number', 'Date of Entry', 'Date of Execution and Signature of Witness' and 'Subsequent Disposal, Loans etc'. Prior to this date, much of this information was included as annotations.

Each Ledger has an alpha-sorted index. Sorting is by initial letter of the property location (town name) except in the case of

• London Properties: sorted by initial letter of road/street name
• Miscellaneous (Establishment): entered chronologically by 'deed entry date'
• Parks & Palaces: entered chronologically by 'deed entry date'
• Diplomatic & Consular Properties: entered chronologically by 'deed entry date'.

The arrangement of information within the Schedule Books is largely alphabetical:

• Provincial Properties: by town name and subsequently by road/street name
• London Properties: by road/street name
• Parks & Palaces: by property name with miscellaneous properties in their own section of the book
• Northern Ireland: by town name and subsequently by road/street name
• Scotland: by town name and subsequently by road/street name.

The origins of the Office of Works and its successors lay in the medieval royal household, where royal clerks were assigned responsibility for the construction and maintenance of royal castles and fortifications, royal residences and a range of other 'king's works' for successive monarchs. From 1378, a formal structure emerged which by the early seventeenth century was known simply as the Office of Works. A series of reforms brought the office out of the royal household to be placed directly under the Treasury. Its responsibilities were extended to cover public buildings maintained by parliamentary funds, as well as royal palaces and other buildings, and works for ceremonial occasions.

In April 1832 the Office of Works was consolidated with the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, but maintained its separate identity as the Works Department of the combined Office.

In 1851, the Works Department was re-established as a separate Office of Works under the control of the First Commissioner of HM Works and Public Buildings. It had become a department of central government, under parliamentary scrutiny, building for every branch of the state except the armed forces. Its Board of Works was incorporated with power to accept, purchase and take lands and hereditaments and to convey, lease or otherwise deal with such property with the consent of the Treasury.

The Metropolis Management Act of 1855 created the Metropolitan Board of Works, a London-wide body which took over the 'Metropolitan Improvements' which the Office of Works had undertaken.

By 1880 the Office of Works was responsible for:

• the construction and furnishing of any new building required for the civil departments of government;
• the maintenance, repair and alteration of existing government buildings and Royal Palaces;
• the care of the Royal Parks;
• the provision and maintenance of the growing number of embassy buildings overseas;
• the construction and repair of main post office buildings.

The 1914-18 War brought new responsibilities:

• acquisition of land;
• erection and conversion of buildings for wartime purposes;
• safe storage of national treasures.

Post-war tasks included war memorials, management of housing estates and provision of training establishments and sanatoria for ex-service personnel.

By 1940, construction and maintenance of Art & Science buildings and County Courts; protection of Ancient Monuments; management of Trafalgar Square, Kew and Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens and Brompton Cemetery; care of public statues; administration and maintenance of Osborne Convalescent Home; upkeep of Rampton and Broadmoor Hospitals; and the erection and maintenance of telephone exchanges and coastguard stations had been added to the list of responsibilities.

In addition, from 1936 the Office of Works was involved with emergency programmes in case of war: building ordnance factories and emergency hospitals, and constructing air raid shelters in government buildings.

The Second World War led to the transformation of the Office of Works into a full scale Ministry of Works and Buildings responsible for an area of government policy. Specific wartime functions included new building work, the co-ordination of government building programmes and long-term planning for post-war reconstruction.

In July 1942 statutory planning powers were transferred to the Ministry of Works and Buildings which was temporarily re-titled the Ministry of Works and Planning. Five months later its planning divisions were removed to form a separate Ministry of Town and Country Planning. The Ministry of Works and Buildings was renamed the Ministry of Works.

Hitherto military building had developed separately from the civil. By 1855 the property in all lands and buildings used for military purposes became vested in the Secretary of State for War and the Inspector-General of Fortifications retained control of construction services. With the setting up of the Ministry of Works and Buildings in 1940 to deal with wartime conditions, some way forward was made to take overall responsibility for building work (both civilian and defence). Nevertheless, 'highly specialised' works were left to the Defence Works Departments. In 1958 a War Office Works Directorate was established which in 1963 was merged with the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

In the post-war period the Ministry of Works dealt with the de-requisitioning of property taken over for government use. The wartime decentralisation of government accommodation continued, in order to provide for new post-war departments and the growth of regional and local offices of government departments. In July 1962 the Ministry of Works was renamed The Ministry of Public Buildings and Works which in 1970 became the 'construction wing' of the Department of the Environment, re-emerging in 1972 as the Property Services Agency (PSA), although with some loss of function.

Property Services Agency (PSA), incorporating the Defence Lands Organisation, was established within the Department of the Environment (DoE) to provide, maintain, manage and furnish Government accommodation for both civil and defence requirements.

In 1976 responsibility for the Royal Parks and Ancient Monuments in Scotland was transferred to the Scottish Office; and in 1984 the Directorate of Estates Management Overseas was transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 1988 Defence Estate Services Division (DESD) transferred to the Ministry of Defence.

From this date PSA was responsible only for the Civil Estate which comprised Departmental Estate and Common User Estate. Departmental estate contained all properties which were unique to one specific department of Government. Common User Estate comprised all other properties which could be used by any Government department.

From 1 April 1990 individual Government departments were made responsible for their their own portion of the Departmental Estate and the related deeds. At the same time PSA was restructured. Its long term governmental functions (including the Deeds Office) and the management of the Common User Estate transferred as 'Property Holdings' to the Department of the Environment. PSA's commercial activities became known as PSA Services, and were eventually privatised.

Property Holdings was abolished in 1995.

In 1996 departments also became responsible for the management of those parts of the Common User Estate that they were occupying. An executive agency of the Cabinet Office, Property Advisers to the Civil Estate (PACE), was established to provide central property guidance and property-related client services. PACE became responsible for the Residual Estate (i.e. the vacant estate and buildings occupied by PACE at 1 April 1996) and inherited the remains of the Deeds Office from PSA via Property Holdings. Some Government bodies continued to use the PACE Deeds Office under arrangements with PACE (via an 'Intelligent Client Management' contract or a PACE Service Level Agreement). From 1 April 2001 Property Advisors to the Civil Estate was absorbed into the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) an independent office of the Treasury.