Architectural drawings

1. Introduction

The National Archives holds substantial quantities of architectural drawings, dating mainly from the 18th to the 20th centuries. They include plans, elevations, sections and perspective drawings of individual buildings and parts, details and features of buildings and other built structures (including some major engineering projects) and site plans of varying levels of detail from elaborate depictions of houses and grounds, to simple outline block plans.

This research guide gives a general overview of our holdings of architectural drawings. It does not discuss other architectural and building records, such as contracts, building accounts or the variety of correspondence and papers which may be created or accumulated in the course of the planning, construction and maintenance of any building or built structure. Nor does it cover technical and engineering drawings relating to moveable structures such as ships, locomotives or aircraft.

The National Archives does not hold architectural models.

Architectural drawings, like the other records which The National Archives holds, have accrued in government departments and agencies or courts of law in the course of the normal activities of those bodies, and have subsequently been selected for permanent preservation. They are themselves part of the records - some held in discrete groupings, some scattered among the written records to which they relate - and are arranged in the order in which they were created, accumulated and transferred by the departments, agencies or courts. Until the twentieth century, however, the British government's interest in architecture was largely confined to public and Crown buildings and to schemes for buildings and works by local authorities under various acts of Parliament. The majority of architectural drawings in The National Archives reflect that interest.

Broadly speaking, The National Archives' holdings of architectural drawings used in the conduct of domestic government business relate mainly to England and Wales. They reflect the work not only of government departments, but also of some public transport undertakings and public utilities. The substantial landholdings of the Crown and government and the frequency of litigation in relation to privately-owned land, mean that The National Archives' holdings include drawings relating to buildings and other structures on estates, large and small (although The National Archives is not normally the best place to start a search for such material, except for that which relates to the estates of the Crown).

Drawings of buildings and structures located outside the British Isles were created or accumulated in pursuit of both foreign relations and colonial activities, and in the work of the armed services, particularly fortifications: many such drawings are now held here, relating to a variety of areas of the world.

2. The scope of the records

The buildings and structures represented in plans and drawings among the records are immensely diverse. The most substantial holdings relate to buildings which form part of the Crown Estate or have been the responsibility of the Office of Works and its successor departments and agencies (WORK). Among these are royal palaces; the Houses of Parliament, government buildings in the United Kingdom and overseas; buildings constructed for or used by the armed services (navy, army and air force); ancient monuments; and works for ceremonial events such as coronations and state funerals. Many drawings are in series among the records of the Crown Estate Commissioners (CRES) and the Office of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments and its predecessors and associated departments (LRRO). Others can be found among the records of the former service ministries: Admiralty and naval forces (ADM), Air Ministry, Royal Air Force and related bodies (AIR) and War Office (WO), or of the overseas departments: the Colonial Office (CO) Dominions Office (DO) and Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FO and FCO).

Also among the records are drawings and plans relating to individual buildings, including schools, hospitals, poor law buildings, Metropolitan police stations, and municipal buildings. The most substantial accumulations relating to local authority buildings and building schemes are in series of records of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and successor and related bodies (HLG). Large quantities of plans and drawings of railway stations and hotels are among the records of pre-nationalisation railway, canal and related companies in the British Transport Historical Collection (RAIL) and those created or inherited by the British Transport Commission, British Railways Board and successors (AN). The records also contain various plans relating to substantial complexes, such as housing estates, naval dockyards, or the Festival of Britain site (records of the Festival of Britain Office are in WORK 25), and a wide diversity of other sites and buildings (see section 3 below).

It is important, however, to be aware of the limitations of The National Archives' holdings. In no case do they represent the full range of drawings produced for any building project. In many cases, we hold only a handful of drawings for a particular structure or project, although there are a few cases where exceptionally large quantities of drawings have survived, notably for the Houses of Parliament (WORK 29) and the Royal Courts of Justice (WORK 30). The records do not cover all buildings in any of the categories noted above: many older plans and drawings have not survived, and much such material is also elsewhere than The National Archives (see section 10 below). For example, the most likely source of plans or information about institutions of strongly local interest, such as hospitals and schools, will be the appropriate local record office. For hospital records, the best starting-point is the Hospital Records database, a joint project of the Wellcome Trust and The National Archives: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/.

3. The arrangement of the records

Some departments, notably the former Office of Works, accumulated discrete series of maps and plans which consist wholly or largely of plans and drawings of individual buildings, groups of buildings, or of maps illustrating aspects of the built environment, usually in relation to planning and development.

Departments often treated drawings as maps, so that drawings of individual sites, buildings and structures are often found in series which consist principally of maps.

The following list indicates the most substantial series consisting entirely or almost entirely of maps, plans and drawings, which are known to include significant quantities of material relating to architecture and the built environment. It is divided into three broad categories:

1. series relating to specific buildings, sites and planning
2. series relating to major civil engineering projects and undertakings
3. series relating to buildings and sites used by and for the armed services.

These categories are not, however, wholly clear-cut: some series may contain records which fall into more than one category.

3.1. Drawings and plans relating to specific buildings, sites and planning

3.2. Drawings and plans relating to major civil engineering projects and undertakings

3.3. Drawings and plans relating to buildings and sites used by and for the armed services

It is essential to remember that many, indeed probably most, of the drawings among the records are bound up with correspondence on registered files, or otherwise filed among the records with which they were originally associated in the course of business. Even those departments which have created and transferred distinct series of maps and plans to The National Archives have probably transferred at least as many drawings among textual records, for example registered files. Sometimes, plans or drawings are mentioned as part of the catalogue entry in Discovery, our catalogue. But often the catalogue entries give no indication that drawings are present in particular documents.

There are two further limitations worth noting. First, it is relatively rare for the descriptions to indicate the physical format of the drawing (the material on which it is recorded and the medium in which it is drawn). However, some information on material and medium is available for large parts of the series of drawings in the various WORK series listed in category (a) above, in the form of photostatic copies of a card index originally maintained by the Ministry of Works and successors; these copies can be consulted in the Map and Large Document Reading Room at The National Archives, Kew. Second, it is also uncommon for descriptions to record the stage in the building project at which a particular drawing or set of drawings was produced (e.g. presentation drawings, contract drawings, working drawings, record/as built drawings). In some cases, this can be determined from the drawings themselves, but in others it is not easy to establish.

4. Map extract references

The National Archives has also treated many drawings in the same way as it has treated maps. This affects how some of them are now referenced.

For a relatively small, but significant, minority of maps and plans, including architectural and other drawings, The National Archives has created separate series of 'map extract references'. In about 1926 a system was introduced whereby maps and plans were removed ('extracted') from their place in the storage sequence of departmental records and placed in a separate map room, where they were given special extracted map location references. Over time, these location references came to be used as document references.

Before 1959, some entire series of maps and drawings were thus extracted. More commonly, however, individual maps and drawings have been extracted from individual documents. This is done primarily as a preservation measure, usually if the item when opened exceeds the overall size of the document of which it formed part (usually referred to as the 'parent' document). A 'dummy' sheet is inserted in the parent document, briefly describing the extracted item and giving its new reference. The extracted item is endorsed with the reference of the parent document, to maintain a link between them.

The map extract references originally took the form of an alphabetic prefix followed by a serial number for each for each extract (which may contain one or more items). The prefixes were designed to show the provenance of the extracted items, their format and size (flat, rolled or other formats) and later (1977-1997) in which of the Public Record Office's buildings they were held. In 1998, as part of the move to online cataloguing, the map extract references were converted to standard National Archives document references: the prefixes became department codes, each containing one or more series, and the serial numbers became piece numbers.

There are 35 such department codes, containing 38 series. Those series which contain architectural plans and drawings can be identified by searching our catalogue using key words such as 'architectural drawings'.

It is normally worthwhile to consult the extracted drawings in conjunction with the parent document, which often contains additional information as well as giving context to the drawing.

5. Catalogues and other finding aids

The starting-point for any search for material among the public records is the our catalogue, which contains listings of all our holdings, and which is updated on a daily basis, to enhance existing descriptions and to add new descriptions as records are transferred to The National Archives. Many pre-existing finding aids were converted to electronic format and entered into our catalogue in 2001 and are thus accessible both on site at The National Archives and remotely. Others, however, are still available in paper form only.

The public records include many thousands of architectural drawings, only some of which have been identified and described in detail. Others are listed, often with only minimal description, or remain unidentified within the records in which they were transferred.

5.1. Series lists

Most series of drawings have been listed in the standard manner, although often to a fairly minimal level of detail. In addition, descriptions of some series of records indicate the presence of drawings (usually described as 'plans'), either generally at series level or more specifically at piece level. In these series, the arrangement of the drawings or other records reflects the order in which they were accumulated or used by the creating department.

The contents of the series lists are in our catalogue, and paper copies are also available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.

The series created as map extract references were not listed in this way, although their contents were described in the various topographically-arranged catalogues. Brief series lists were drawn up in the late 1990s for entry into our catalogue; these have been enhanced by the conversion of the entries from the published and supplementary catalogues (see below).

5.2. Published catalogues

The fullest descriptions of drawings are those which appear in the published and supplementary catalogues (see below). Many of these descriptions are still available only in paper form, but entries for drawings held under map extract references have now been converted to electronic format and added to our catalogue.

Some maps, plans and drawings are described in four published catalogues, under the general title: Maps and Plans in the Public Record Office:

1. British Isles c.1410-1860 (HMSO, 1967)
2. America and West Indies (HMSO, 1974)
3. Africa (HMSO, 1983)
4. Europe and Turkey (TSO, 1998)

Their contents are arranged topographically under country names in use at the date of publication, and then chronologically within each region, country or place. They contain indexes of draughtsmen, surveyors and cartographers, but not of subjects.

These catalogues describe only a fraction of the drawings in The National Archives, whether in map extract series or other document series. They were compiled from research into series known or presumed to contain maps, plans and drawings and do not represent an exhaustive trawl of the records in The National Archives even at the date of publication.

Copies of these catalogues, annotated with corrections and updates, are available for consultation at The National Archives, Kew. Copies are also available in many libraries.

5.3. Supplementary catalogues

These consist of a card catalogue and draft manuscript catalogue entries for drawings in records relating to Japan.

The card catalogue is arranged topographically, under the names of countries in use at the date of cataloguing. A separate drawer contains a card index to names of draughtsmen, surveyors and cartographers. There is no subject index.

The card catalogue contains information about drawings which have come to light since the appearance of the published catalogues and in places not covered by the published catalogues. The catalogues include entries describing drawings small enough to remain in their parent documents. Please note, however, that cards relating to map extract references have been removed, as these descriptions are available in our catalogue.

The draft catalogue entries for Japan are also arranged topographically. They are not accompanied by indexes for either map-makers or subjects.

These catalogues are available for consultation at The National Archives.

5.4. Summary calendar of unextracted maps

For a few years in the late 1980s to early 1990s, maps, plans and drawings found in (but not extracted from) documents in series not consisting wholly of graphic material, were recorded in a summary calendar. This provides a brief notice of these drawings, but does not attempt to provide a full catalogue description. A single description may relate to a large number of drawings, and the amount of detail recorded varies.

As with other map-specific finding aids, the calendar is arranged topographically. It is in two parts. The first, arranged topographically, fills 13 binders. The second part, arranged by subject headings, is in three binders, forming three separate alphabetical sequences, A-Z. These subject headings may occasionally assist in answering subject-based enquiries. Both parts provide direct references to documents containing architectural drawings and building plans (the latter sometimes no more than outline ground plans), as well as more detailed scale drawings.

The summary calendar is available at The National Archives, Kew.

6. How to search for drawings in our catalogue

Our catalogue contains references to many architectural drawings, site plans and related maps, which can be identified using both the simple and the more sophisticated search facilities. However, not all such documents in The National Archives are described in our catalogue.

Some detailed descriptions can still be found only in the paper-based catalogues: it will be some years before these are fully entered into our catalogue. Some are simply not described in detail in any existing catalogue, and you will only be able to look for them by looking at records in series which are, or appear likely to be, relevant to your enquiry.

If you looking at a fairly general level to see what drawings exist and where they may be found among the records, two different search facilities in our catalogue may be helpful.

• Drawings are often noted (usually as 'plans') in research guides on particular records or research topics: to explore these, search by keywords such as 'drawings' or 'plans'.
• Plans and drawings are also noted in the descriptions in our catalogue, particularly at levels from series to item. 

You need to be aware, however, that any search term including 'plan' will inevitably give hits for references to 'plans' and 'planning' which have nothing to do with architecture or the built environment.

7. Plans drawn by named architects

Some drawings signed or otherwise known to be drawn by named individuals may be identified from:

• a search in our catalogue
• the indexes of draughtsmen and surveyors in the published catalogues
• the index to draughtsmen and surveyors accompanying the supplementary card catalogue
• the subject heading for architects and surveyors which forms part of the summary catalogue of unextracted maps
• a typescript index of signed drawings among the records of the Office of Works and successors

The last three are available at The National Archives, Kew, only.

None of these is comprehensive. The typescript index is not wholly reliable, although it provides some useful pointers.

8. Architectural furnishings and fittings

Drawings of architectural details, fittings and furnishings may appear in records in many of the series listed above (section 3), often relating to the contents of specific buildings. Other sources of such information among the records, both site-specific and more general, include:

BT 183 Board of Trade: Utility Furniture Scheme: Files, 1943-1949 - this series contains large numbers of drawings

WORK 25 Festival of Britain Office records - including many drawings relating to furnishings, fixtures and fittings in buildings on the Festival site

DSIR 4 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: Building Research Station: Correspondence and Papers

9. Architectural drawings held elsewhere

10. Further reading and information sources

There is no comprehensive published survey of architectural records in general, or drawings in particular, among the holdings of The National Archives. However, two publications offer advice on specific research topics or records, with some information about plans and drawings among the records.

Nick Barratt, Tracing the History of Your House (2nd edition, 2006)

Cliff Edwards, Railway Records: a Guide to Sources (2001)

There are few general studies of the history of architectural drawings, but the following provide information on particular aspects of the creation and arrangement and drawings on paper and in other hard-copy formats:

Jill Lever & Margaret Richardson, The art of the architect: treasures from the RIBA's collections (RIBA, 1984)

Eleonore Kissel & Erin Vigneau, Architectural photoreproductions: a manual for identification and care (Oak Knoll Press, 1999)

A Guide to the Archival Care of Architectural Records, 19th-20th Centuries (International Council on Archives, 2000)

"Architecture Links", maintained by the RIBA's British Architectural Library, and accessible from the RIBA's home page, is a gateway to internet resources concerning architecture, including architectural history and libraries and archives with significant architectural collections.