General administrative records of Sun Insurance Office Limited, including standing order books; resolutions; papers regarding company policy, management and office organisation; papers relating to general insurance matters and other insurance companies; legal memoranda; newspaper cuttings; policy documents; prospectuses; circulars; blank policy forms; booklets; statistics; papers relating to Sun Life Assurance Society; papers relating to the London Fire Engine Establishment and the London Salvage Corps; and a history by FB Relton.

The administrative records cover the domestic division of the Sun into 'Town' and 'Country' departments, and also the records of the foreign division from its inception in 1836.

This section includes notebooks and scrapbooks compiled by Francis Boyer Relton, who was Office Secretary 1873-82.

THESE RECORDS ARE SUBJECT TO A 50 YEAR CLOSURE PERIOD. LIFE POLICY REGISTERS, CLAIMS REGISTERS AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY POLICY REGISTERS ARE CLOSED FOR 75 YEARS.

Records of the Sun Insurance Office Limited relating to premises and property, including plans of London offices; photographs; and correspondence.

THESE RECORDS ARE SUBJECT TO A 50 YEAR CLOSURE PERIOD. LIFE POLICY REGISTERS, CLAIMS REGISTERS AND EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY POLICY REGISTERS ARE CLOSED FOR 75 YEARS.

Records of the London County Council Stores Department, later Supplies Department, 1889-1965, including papers relating to allegations of price ring for the supply of lead pencils; forms of tender for various supplies including boots, clothing, and provisions (a form of tender was provided for each commodity with instructions to the tenderer, a schedule showing quantities required and, where appropriate, a specification); standard forms of tender for individual commodities; standard forms of tender for individual commodities, Tramways Series; reports and research on the stores organisations of other local authorities and organisations; papers and reports of the Departmental Committee on the Organisation of the Supplies Department; papers and reports of the Special Committee on Local Expenditure; annual reports on the work of the Stores (later Supplies) Department with annual accounts; reports on stores procedures; papers on the manufacture and supply of clothing, textiles, soft goods, leather and glassware; papers on the production of the Municipal Map of London and the Education Map of London; findings of an enquiry into the medical requirements of hospitals, asylums and other institutions and the method of supplying; statistics and accounts; plans of Stores Depots; pamphlet containing instructions as to stores procedure for staff ordering stores; 'Please Supply', handbook for new entrants to the Supplies Department; Supplies Department Office Manual; Supplies Department Reports by the Chief Officer; Supplies Department Supplies Committee Orders; Supplies Department other Committee Orders and Chief Officer's instructions.

Records of J Lyons and Company Limited and Lyons Tetley Limited, food manufacturers and caterers, W H and F J Horniman and Company Limited and Joseph Tetley and Company, tea merchants, 1849-1978.

This collection contains records relating to all three companies (Horniman, Lyons and Tetley) when they were trading as separate businesses and when they were united under various incarnations of the one "Lyons" name. (They include references to other companies such as Symbol biscuits which Lyons took over in 1944)

However, despite the fact that some corporate records such as minutes have been retained by the Tetley Group Limited the majority of this collection is in fact composed of records relating to the Lyons company (which is necessarily linked with the former due to the fact it was a major competitor for years before taking it over in 1973).

Marketing and publicity aspects are the most heavily represented. As such this is a visually appealing collection and of particular note are the photograph albums and volumes of artwork, product labels and advertisments which are a testiment to the impact tea drinking has had on British society and its way of life.

Records relate to the operation and acquisition of Top Star Taverns Limited including articles of association, minutes, accounts, and correspondence from the 1970s.

Records of Trollope and Colls Ltd, builders, and predecessors including Messrs Trollope and Sons (London) Ltd, decorators; Joseph Trollope and Sons, wall paper hangers; Joseph Amos Trollope and George Trollope, decorators; Colls and Sons, builders; George Trollope and Sons and Colls and Sons Ltd, builders.

The records consist mainly of financial records such as customer account books, ledgers, journals and cost books. The letter book of 1797-1808 (B/TRL/9) is of special interest to students of wall paper and interior decoration history. The detailed account books for Trollope and Colls Ltd illustrate the work of a major building firm with a great influence on the London skyline.

Personal papers of James Barr, employee of Trumans Ltd, including Transport and General Workers Union cards and papers, Truman's Sports Club rules and fixture lists, and papers relating to the company including redundancy scheme, annual excursions, regulations and agreements, 1939-1989; handbooks, programmes, rules, fixture lists and posters for the London Breweries Amateur Sports Association and the Highgate Harriers Athletic Club, 1951-1979; issues of company publications including 'The Black Eagle', the 'Truman Times', '1666', 'Truman News', 'Truman Topics', 'Watney Truman News' and 'Stag and Eagle' (Watney Combe Reid publication), 1948-1989; annual reports and pension scheme information, 1977-1989; and issues of 'The Master Brewer' and 'The National Brewery Museum Chronicle', 1968-1986.

Records of unidentified subsidiary companies of Courage and Company Limited and Barclay Perkins and Company Limited, brewers, including brewing books; monthly beer duty book; photographs of beer tanks and brewery premises; deeds and papers for the Arundel Arms, Westbourne Road, Islington, land in Bury Green Road and Lordship Road, Cheshunt, Herts, the White Hart Hotel, Margate, Kent.

Also roll of plans and artist's views of proposed new brewery in Tanganyika, for Ind Coope and Allsopp Ltd, Burton-on-Trent probably from H and G Simonds and drawings, mainly of fermenters, for New Zealand Breweries Ltd, Wellington.

United Associations Limited records comprise: minutes of the board, 1923-1966 (Ms 23250); and financial accounts including ledgers and cash books, 1923-1967 (Ms 23251-5).

Victoria Embankment Properties Limited records comprise minutes of board meetings and of annual general meetings, papers submitted to board meetings, directors' annual reports and accounts, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, and directors' annual reports, journals, ledgers, cash books, revenue ledgers, tenants accounts and papers concerning the construction of Electra House, Temple Place, Victoria.

Records of Welwyn Restaurants Limited, mainly corporate and financial records dated from the 1920s through to the 1960s; including minute books from directors' meetings, Company registers, seal books and accounts.

Records of Wembley Stadium Public Limited Company relating to the stadium, 1927-1992, including Directors' Board Meetings minutes; correspondence of the Secretary; Wembley Stadium Development Scheme; financial accounts including cash books, journals, day books; wages books; employee record cards; records relating to pensions; race lists of greyhounds and their owners; legal and property records. Also records of associated company Juliana's Discotheques Limited, including minutes, memorandum and articles of association and share certificates.

The records of West European Industries Limited consist of Board minutes, annual reports and accounts and financial material. The records are held offsite and require 24 hours notice for access.

Records of the Clerk of the Peace for the Westminster Quarter Sessions of the Peace, 1665-1807. Records comprise one volume containing the following: copies of orders of Privy Council to the Justices of the Peace of Middlesex and Westminster as to measures to be taken to prevent the spread of plague - including an order to erect a pest house; copies of resultant orders of the Justices to high constables, Churchwardens, etc including orders for removal of lay stalls and repair of an offensive lane; lists of suspected papists and instructions from the Privy Council and others to the Justices of the Peace in connection with them; lists (indexed) of persons who have taken oaths of allegiance and supremacy and subscribed the declaration under Act of 1 Wm and Mary, or who have refused to do so; lists (indexed) of persons convicted of profane cursing and swearing according to the Act of 627 Wm III, 1665-1708.

Also one volume containing the following: register of the names of persons who have been granted Game Certificates at the Westminster Sessions; Commissioners' Certificates under the Property Act, filed at Westminster Sessions; register of certificates of Freemans Lodges, filed at Westminster Sessions; register of the names of persons who carry on the trade of Press and Type Makers, and who have given notice to Westminster Sessions; register of names of persons who carry on the trade of Printer, and who have given notice to Westminster Sessions; register of Surveyors Certificates files at Westminster Sessions; 1799-1807.

Also a booklet containing standing orders, with appendix, 1840.

Note on the Quarter Sessions records: Although Westminster has fewer surviving records than Middlesex, the City's sessions would have produced similar records to those of the County, but they would have been smaller in quantity, and have included less administrative material. Also, as with all Quarter Sessions records, "seeing that the Custos Rotulorum was a private gentleman or nobleman and the Clerk of the Peace an attorney with a private practice it is likely that many county records were (if not lost or destroyed) handed down to their families or their professional successors" and many may still remain to be found in private hands (Emmison and Gray, County Records, 1987). Those records that have survived are often difficult to read or understand because of the handwriting, use of Latin (until 1733), or legal jargon and abbreviations; although standardised legal formats were used and printed pro formas introduced by the nineteenth century.

For the Middlesex and Westminster records there may also be confusion over the records' arrangement resulting from the attempts at classification by previous generations of archivists which have left many records split up into unnatural groupings. Originally they would not have been sorted into any cohesive arrangement. These were records that were "kept for administrative convenience rather than as sources for future generations" (G. Jones, Quarter Sessions records in the Leicestershire Record Office).

Because of this overlapping between many classes of record, any study of the Westminster records should include consultation of those for Middlesex. There was in any case a lot of co-operation between the two courts during the period covered by the records. Judicial (Gaol Delivery Sessions for example) and administrative functions were shared, as were court personnel (including justices). Westminster prisoners could elect to be tried at the Middlesex sessions, as these were held more frequently than their own.

The sessions records are a very useful source for family history, studying trends in law and order, and the life of the City and its inhabitants over a relatively long period of time. The capital was an area with high levels of crime, the natural place for riot and conspiracy, and attracted a wide variety of people from the whole country and abroad. The main record of proceedings at the sessions will be found in the sessions rolls (MJ/SR and the uncatalogued WJ/SR - index in WJ/CB); the (partially uncatalogued) sessions books (WJ/SB, MJ/SB); and the (partially uncatalogued) sessions papers (WJ/SP, MJ/SP). City administrative work is in the records of the County Day sessions (WJ/O), and for one particular type, in the records of the street surveyors (WJ/SS). Records of judicial procedure are in the records of court fines (WJ/E), writs to summon juries (WJ/W), and the trial process (WJ/Y); Lists of prisoners made at various times during the trial process are in WJ/CC and WJ/CP.

Records enrolled or filed with the Clerk of the Westminster Quarter Sessions of the Peace, 1552-1885. The records classified as WR/A are concerned with the registration of foreigners; WR/B are records produced by Building Surveyors; WR/F are returns of those eligible to serve on juries; WR/L/P covers the licensing of printing presses; WR/LV relate to Licensed Victuallers; WR/ML are concerned with Militia and Lieutenancy; WR/O are Oaths of Office; WR/P are papers concerning Parliamentary Elections; WR/PLT Land Tax; WR/R contains the records produced from the control and recording of all non-conformists; WR/S contains records concerned with Societies; and WR/U records deposited with the court concerning Public Undertakings.

Note on the Quarter Sessions records: Although Westminster has fewer surviving records than Middlesex, the City's sessions would have produced similar records to those of the County, but they would have been smaller in quantity, and have included less administrative material. Also, as with all Quarter Sessions records, "seeing that the Custos Rotulorum was a private gentleman or nobleman and the Clerk of the Peace an attorney with a private practice it is likely that many county records were (if not lost or destroyed) handed down to their families or their professional successors" and many may still remain to be found in private hands (Emmison and Gray, County Records, 1987). Those records that have survived are often difficult to read or understand because of the handwriting, use of Latin (until 1733), or legal jargon and abbreviations; although standardised legal formats were used and printed pro formas introduced by the nineteenth century.

For the Middlesex and Westminster records there may also be confusion over the records' arrangement resulting from the attempts at classification by previous generations of archivists which have left many records split up into unnatural groupings. Originally they would not have been sorted into any cohesive arrangement. These were records that were "kept for administrative convenience rather than as sources for future generations" (G. Jones, Quarter Sessions records in the Leicestershire Record Office).

Because of this overlapping between many classes of record, any study of the Westminster records should include consultation of those for Middlesex. There was in any case a lot of co-operation between the two courts during the period covered by the records. Judicial (Gaol Delivery Sessions for example) and administrative functions were shared, as were court personnel (including justices). Westminster prisoners could elect to be tried at the Middlesex sessions, as these were held more frequently than their own.

The sessions records are a very useful source for family history, studying trends in law and order, and the life of the City and its inhabitants over a relatively long period of time. The capital was an area with high levels of crime, the natural place for riot and conspiracy, and attracted a wide variety of people from the whole country and abroad. The main record of proceedings at the sessions will be found in the sessions rolls (MJ/SR and the uncatalogued WJ/SR - index in WJ/CB); the (partially uncatalogued) sessions books (WJ/SB, MJ/SB); and the (partially uncatalogued) sessions papers (WJ/SP, MJ/SP). City administrative work is in the records of the County Day sessions (WJ/O), and for one particular type, in the records of the street surveyors (WJ/SS). Records of judicial procedure are in the records of court fines (WJ/E), writs to summon juries (WJ/W), and the trial process (WJ/Y); Lists of prisoners made at various times during the trial process are in WJ/CC and WJ/CP.

Accounts records of Whitbread and Company Limited, brewers, including Company accounts books (1815-1959) together with the annual copies of accounts and balance sheets issued to the director from 1890 through to 1952, statement of expenditure books from Britannia Street (1913-1922), cash books (1770-1959), deposit and depreciation ledgers (1916-1949 and 1938-1951 respectively), loan diaries and applications (1885-1919), securities ledgers and shares registers along with an unbroken series of rest books from 1799 through to 1918 with an additional series of rest books from 1941 to 1956.

Also included are accounts, cash and rent books from some of public houses owned by Whitbread and Company plus a variety of ledgers and journals regarding corporate finances both general and private.

Corporate records of Whitbread and Company Limited, brewers, including minutes of various corporate meetings (1889-1977), articles of association, partnership documents covering all major partnership agreements including the original agreement between Mr. Whitbread and Mr. Sewell dated 1761, documents relating to the establishment of the limited company including reports and property valuations, papers regarding Company shares, trusts, agreements and patents, contract books, directors' fees journals, registers of seals (1890-1979), royal warrants (1927-1973), policy documents and Company correspondence.

Also included are a substantial collection of managing director Sir Sydney Nevile's papers covering not only all aspects of his work at Whitbread but also his other commitments such as the Institute of Brewing and the Brewing Advisory Committee.

Records of John Whitwell, general merchant, comprising account books, 1815-22; memorandum books, 1819-20; letterbooks, 1817-1818 and 1821-1823; business diary, 1821-1822 and correspondence with business associates and family, 1819-1829.

Papers of the Wider Share Ownership Council, c1958-c2003, including correspondence, minutes, conference papers, reports and publications, including material relating to the merger with Proshare. Also the personal papers of George Copeman, mainly relating to employee share ownership and business management.

Records of William Graham and Company, comprising inventory of the Ponte Nova indigo printing works, Portugal.

Records of William Graham Junior and Company, comprising inventory of premises in Lisbon, Portugal.