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Blythe House is a listed building located at 23 Blythe Road, West Kensington, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, UK. Originally built as the headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, it is now used as a store and archive by the Victoria and Albert, Science and British Museums. In the 2015 Autumn Statement the Government announced it would fund new storage for the museum and then sell off Blythe House.〔https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-and-autumn-statement-2015-documents/spending-review-and-autumn-statement-2015〕 ==Post Office Savings Bank== Blythe House was built between 1899 and 1903 as the Headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, which had outgrown its previous offices at Queen Victoria Street. By 1902 the Bank had 12,000 branches and more than 9 million accounts, with some 4,000 headquarters staff. The complex included a post office, "intended mainly to deal with the extensive official correspondence involved in the work of the Savings Bank."〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/4 Planning of the Blythe Road building. ) Unsigned memo. Undated but likely 1899-1908〕 The post office handled a ton of post (about 100,000 letters) every working day.〔 〕 The post office building still houses the West Kensington delivery office. The main hall on the ground floor gave access to the offices of the Controller and his staff, and also the Public Enquiry Office. The first floor housed the correspondence branches, while the ledger branches were on the floors above. The top floor was mostly taken up with dining rooms and a kitchen.〔 Approximately 1,000 of the staff were female; to avoid the risk of improper mixing of the sexes, females were segregated in the south block of the building, which had its own entrance.〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/4 Planning of the Blythe Road building. ) Unsigned memo. c.1900〕 The work of the Bank increased greatly during the First World War, and by 1919 additional staff were spread over six outstations (including at the new Science Museum). An extension to the East (as envisaged in the original plans) was built starting in 1921, which could accommodate an extra 1000 staff, at an estimated cost of £150,000.〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/6 Erection of extension to the Blythe Road building (East Block) ) Memo signed "AGF" reference 224666/18. 2 June 1919〕 By the 1930s continuing increases in the Bank's business, and the proposed move of the Savings Certificate department to Blythe House,〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/13 Proposed extension to West Side of Blythe Road building ) Minutes of Post Office Savings Coordination Committee. 23 September 1935〕 necessitated further expansion and Treasury authority for a western extension was given in 1938.〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/13 Proposed extension to West Side of Blythe Road building ) Standing Committee for Buildings Expenditure "Buildings Programme 1938-39". Paper B.897〕 However, presumably because of the looming threat of war, the scheme was omitted from the Ministry of Works building programme, and planning postponed indefinitely.〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (NSC 23/14 Proposed extension to West Side of Blythe Road building ) Memo 67156/38. 3 March 1939〕 The western extension was never built. In 1963 the government announced that the Bank's main centre of operations would be moved to Glasgow, in line with its general policy of dispersing civil service departments out of London. A small headquarters staff remained in London, moving to Charles House on Kensington High Street.〔The National Archives: Public Record Office (WORK 12/716 National Savings Bank, Blythe Road, Kensington: future use of site ) JL Winterburn (GPO) to MM Howley (Ministry of Public Buildings and Works). 29 August 1963〕 The Bank finally vacated Blythe House in the early 1970s. File:Blythe House main block 1924.JPG|The main block of Blythe House, in c.1924 File:Blythe House East extension 1924.JPG|The eastern extension of Blythe House, with the post office in front File:Blythe House ledger room 1924.JPG|Female clerks attending to savings ledgers File:Blythe House adding machine room 1924.JPG|Clerks operating adding machines c.1924 File:Blythe House Envelope-making machines 1930s.JPG|Machines used to fold envelopes for the Savings Bank’s extensive correspondence File:Blythe House preparing totals for daily balance 1930s.JPG|1930s clerks preparing daily balances File:Blythe House Post Office Savings mosaic.jpg|The Post Office Savings Bank logo in mosaic on the east wall of Blythe House 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blythe House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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