32 Lincoln's Inn Fields
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Sir Arthur Lewis Building (formerly 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields and Her Majesty's Land Registry Building) is an Edwardian
Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
listed building on the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
, and an academic facility of the
London School of Economics and Political Science The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public university, public research university in London, England, and a member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the University ...
(LSE), located on the south side of
Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a ...
in
Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...
. The building was built in two stages between 1903 and 1913 to house the Head Office of
HM Land Registry His Majesty's Land Registry is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government, created in 1862 to register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. It reports to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governme ...
, with the west wing and centre of the building were built between 1903 and 1905, and the east wing was completed in 1912–1913. The Land Registrar
Charles Brickdale Sir Charles Fortescue Brickdale (1 March 1857 – 20 September 1944) was a British barrister and civil servant best known for his reform of HM Land Registry as Chief Registrar. Life Brickdale was born on 1 March 1857 to Matthew Brickdale, a barr ...
based the design of the building on
Blickling Hall Blickling Hall is a Jacobean stately home situated in 5,000 acres of parkland in a loop of the River Bure, near the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England. The mansion was built on the ruins of a Tudor building for Sir He ...
in Norfolk. The designs were executed by the Office of Works under Henry Tanner and the supervising architect was Richard Allison. The
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
acquired the building in 2010 and converted it into an academic facility, through a £56 million investment. The interior was transformed by the architectural firm Jestico + Whites to include classrooms, two Harvard style lecture theatres, a cafeteria, break out spaces, and a new accessible entrance. The building was opened again in January of 2013, and now houses its Department of Economics, the
Centre for Economic Performance The Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the London School of Economics dedicated to the study of economic growth and effective ways to create a fair, inclusive and sustainable society. Currently led by ...
and the
International Growth Centre The International Growth Centre (IGC) is an economic research centre based at the London School of Economics, operated in partnership with University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government. The centre was launched in December 2008 and is fun ...
. In March 2023, the building was renamed the Sir Arthur Lewis Building to commemorate W. Arthur Lewis, the LSE's first black academic. The building was the exterior set for the Halcyon Hotel in the 2017 World War II television drama ''
The Halcyon ''The Halcyon'' is a British television period drama broadcast on ITV which began airing on 2 January 2017. It was created and written by Charlotte Jones. The series focused on examining World War II London from 'a new perspective', and was se ...
''.


References

{{coord, 51.51556, -0.11486, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Grade II listed government buildings London School of Economics Office buildings completed in 1913 Holborn