page_title: London Metropolitan Archives
section_title: The Greater London Record Office
hierarchical_section_title: London Metropolitan Archives / History / The Greater London Record Office
caption_attribution_description: English: Repository block of London Metropolitan Archives, Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1, built 1990s.
context_page_description: The London Metropolitan Archives is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its present name in 1997, having previously been known as the Greater London Record Office. It is administered and financed by the City of London Corporation.
  The archive is based at 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, London. It attracts over 30,000 visitors a year and deals with a similar number of written enquiries. LMA's extensive holdings amount to over 72 miles of records of local, regional and national importance. With the earliest record dating from 1067, the archive charts the development of the capital into a modern-day major world city.
context_section_description: Under the Local London Government Act 1963, which came into effect on 1 April 1965, the administrative counties of London and Middlesex together with their respective county councils were abolished. They were replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC) which administered a much wider area known as Greater London. The formation of Greater London also meant that some areas that had been previously part of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire, were also now included. However, to minimise confusion, it was agreed that records from these areas should remain within their ancient county.
  The Greater London Council took over responsibility for the established record offices of the counties of London and Middlesex, as well as the former member's library of the London County Council. Together, these became the Greater London Record Office (GLRO) and Library. Although administratively united, the new archive continued to exist at two separate sites, with Middlesex material still held at Dartmouth Street and London material at County Hall (the record office being approximately where the London Aquarium is now situated). The two archives finally came together in 1979, when the Dartmouth Street site was sold by the GLC, and both archives were housed at County Hall.
  In 1982 the GLRO moved to adapted premises at 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell. This site was a former print works, home to the Temple Press. The Press had moved from nearby Roseberry Avenue in August 1939, and continued to use the site until the end of the 1960s.
  The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, and since that date the archives have been administered by the City of London Corporation. In the early 1990s work started on a new block adjacent to the site in Northampton Road. This extension conformed to archival storage standards, with mobile shelving and environmental controls.
caption: 1990s repository block
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