Southampton Buildings

The Patent Office long remained at the site of its first home, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, an office it originally shared with the Secretaries of Bankrupts and Lunatics!

However, the office accommodation soon proved inadequate and over the next half century, most of the site surrounded by Chancery Lane, Quality Court, Furnival Street and Staple Inn became absorbed by The Patent Office, which retained a link with the building until late in the 1990s.

Parts of the building, including the library are listed due to their special architectural and historic interest.

The Patent Office has seen 2 World Wars with many staff taking an active part on the front line and others working on the home front on duties such as fire watching.

The First World War had seen the deaths of a number of Patent Office staff, when we finally severed our link with 25 Southampton Buildings we brought with us the tablet commemorating them.

Fire watching was not just a pastime in World War II, August 1944, a V1 flying bomb ("doodlebug") hit and badly damaged 25 Southampton Buildings but no important documents were destroyed.