FT.com / Arts & weekend / Magazine – Lies and secrets — Jan 2005

Skip to main content, accesskey 's' Homepage, accesskey '1' Financial Times FT.com Search FT.com Sunday May 4 2008 All times are London time Search News in the FT.com site Search Search Quotes in the FT.com site Quotes ARTS & WEEKEND Magazine Breadcrumb trail navigation: FT Home > Arts & weekend > Magazine Services Email briefings Email alerts Portfolio Currency converter Executive jobs Subscribe to FT.com or view and edit your subscription details. Lies and secrets By Ben Fenton Published: May 1 2008 12:39 | Last updated: May 1 2008 12:39 From outside, the National Archives of England and Wales seems an unlikely setting for a whodunnit. Set back from the bank of the Thames in Kew, south-west London, its architecture is a combination of the forbidding and the friendly. The original 1974 Public Record Office building, a fortress-like concrete structure resembling a Modernists attempt to build a beehive, is now dominated by a big new wing, built in 21st-century university-annexe-style sandstone. Inside, there is slightly more of an air of mystery. The labyrinthine building contains 110 miles of shelving, holding the written record of British and Imperial governance stretching