Blythe House

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.

[2] The complex included a post office, "intended mainly to deal with the extensive official correspondence involved in the work of the Savings Bank.

[5] 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).

[6] By the 1930s continuing increases in the Bank's business, and the proposed move of the Savings Certificate department to Blythe House,[7] necessitated further expansion and Treasury authority for a western extension was given in 1938.

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.

"[12] It was rumoured that the restaurant chain J. Lyons and Co., whose food preparation factory Cadby Hall was adjacent to Blythe House, wanted to acquire the site.

[12] Hammersmith Chess Club used Blythe House as their home venue for a period of time in the mid 70s, having moved on from a draughty and cold St Paul's Church Hall nearby.

[13] In the summer of 1979 Blythe House was used for the temporary exhibition of gifts to the Queen from the All-Japan Handicraft Cultural Association, given in connection with the Silver Jubilee celebrations.

[16] The British Library had previously expressed an interest in taking the whole building in place of their existing repository at Woolwich;[16] the director of the V&A Sir Roy Strong had also lobbied for Blythe House to be used for the public display of several of his museum's collections: "Surely Blythe Road—which is a marvellous building—should be not just a dumping ground but an exciting new complex for the public.