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Great Court at the British Museum, courtesy of the British Museum, Foster and Partners, Nigel Young

The Business Archives Council and The National Archives are working in partnership to identify and preserve Britain's key records relating to architecture, building and construction.

The building and construction sector makes a major contribution to the British economy, yet its history and archives are not well known or understood. We are running a project to establish the nature and location of records produced by firms in the architecture, building and construction sector that have not been surveyed or deposited. We will then add this information to the National Register of Archives (NRA) so it is available to a wide range of users.

The NRA is a database containing information on the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records that relate to British history.

The project will:

While the mapping is limited to England and Wales, there is scope for cooperation with Scottish partners to extend the project.

For more information please contact the ABC project officer.

Progress to date

Since the project began in the autumn of 2011 a number of construction firms and architectural practices have participated in the survey or are currently liaising with the project officer, including:

Businesses interested in taking part in the survey are encouraged to get in touch.  For more information please contact the ABC project officer.