§ MR. H. D. GREENE (Shrewsbury)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the Government have considered if the Public Record Office is sufficiently distant from houses, stables and other buildings to be secure from damage or destruction by fire; and whether, seeing that the use for commercial or manufacturing purposes of Cliffords Inn and adjoining properties, which are now offered for sale, would be a source of danger to the Record Office, and interfere with its extension and preclude its isolation, they propose to take any, and, if so, what steps in the matter.
§ MR. AILWYN FELLOWES (Huntingdonshire, Ramsay)The Commissioners of Works have for some time past been taking action to secure the protection of the Record Office from fire. On the north side arrangements have been made for the maintenance of an open space of nearly fifty feet in width, extending from Chancery Lane to Fetter Lane and this is considered sufficient to secure the buildings from damage or destruction. On the south side of the south-western angle of the building, arrangements have been arrived at for the setting back of the new building frontage, and the use of the property referred to for commercial or manufacturing purposes will be carefully watched by H.M. Government so as to avert all source of danger to the Record Office. I may add that room is reserved on the Record Office site for a further extension of the building.