Papers, 1795-1860, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising legal documents relating to the Jamaican estates of Reverend Isaac Robinson and his wife Rebecca Bond, including marriage settlement, deed of trusts and copy of draft general report in Chancery action taken by Abraham Watson Rutherford and others versus Sarah Wilkinson, widow, Revd. Isaac Robinson and Rebecca his wife and others in the matter of estate of William Bond, deceased, executor and residuary legatee of brother Thomas Bond, deceased, both West India merchants, with schedules of accounts relating principally to management of sugar and coffee plantations in Jamaica and sale of produce. Also documents relating to trusteeships held by clerk Thomas Robinson of Milford; and conveyances by lease and release for Bittacy House in Mill Hill.

Records relating to the Paddington to Wapping Canal, comprising letters applying for stock, 1802; 27 sheets recording a canvass of persons affected asking them whether they were for or against a canal or a canal and railway; and bills of expenses in connexion with the above.

Records of the East Surrey Traction Company, 1911-1957, consisting of minute and agenda books, agreements, register of members, newspaper cuttings books, memorandum and articles of association, annual reports, correspondence relating to the purchase by London General Omnibus Company Limited and menu of first annual staff dinner.

Records of the Metropolitan Railway Company, including minutes of Board meetings; General meetings; Finance Committee meetings; Electric Traction Committee meetings; Law and Lands Committee; Parliamentary, Law and Lands Committee meetings; Stores Committee meetings; Traffic Committee meetings; Officer's Monthly Conferences; reports; agreements; registers of accidents and special occurrences; guard books of circulars; books of diagrams; instructions to signalmen; petitions from users of the line; papers of the General Manager relating to various matters including construction of stations and line improvements, daily operations and personnel management; and publications.

Records of the Union Construction Company, manufacturer of tube and tram cars, comprising minutes of Board meetings and minutes of General meetings.

Records of R.F. Fuggle Limited consisting of employment agreements, an underlease and correspondence, 1924-1928.

Records of the Hampton Court Gas Company, consisting of twelve volumes of signed minutes of directors' meetings of proprietors, 1937-1949. The majority of the volumes contain certain cuttings about the company and the gas industry in general which have been extracted from local newspapers and pasted inside the front and back covers.

Papers, 1868-1941, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, mainly documents relating to the business of Wyndham Hewitt Limited of The Causeway, Staines and 9 Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, City of London; including letters patent and other documents relating to inventions for improvements in generating machines and extractor fans by Henry F. Joel; and business agreements between Wyndham Hewitt and other businesses including Lagonda Motors Limited.

Letters patent for the invention of an 'improved table or article of furniture', granted to William Luck of Mabledon Place, cabinet maker, 1861. Attached: Great Seal of Victoria.

Records of the Tottenham and District Gas Company, 1916-1948, consisting of agreements to supply gas and correspondence.

Records of Bevington and Sons, 1690-2001, including: partnership agreements, 1837-1946, minutes, 1859-1930, and partnership negotiations; financial records 1803-1949; records relating to types of stock, products and technical processes and innovations, 1879-1946; staff attendance books and photograph album, 1860-1877; records relating to property, 1792-1967; records relating to stock and finance, 1862-1946. Also family correspondence 1690-1837, and publications and articles on the history of the firm. The family correspondence offers insights into business practice, family relationships and domestic concerns, often in a single letter. Correspondents include women in the family, as wives and daughters of the company partners. Accounts for female family members are also represented.

Records relating to property owned by the Thames Iron Works in Greenwich, Deptford and West Ham.

Also papers of the Ellis family concerning premises at Hornsey, Stoke Newington and Hackney, London, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire and Nelson and Wellington, New Zealand.

Records of the Saint Pancras Lime Company, 1773-1799, comprising minute books of the General Meetings of Proprietors of the Joint Stock and of the Committee and accounts of payments and receipts from the Joint Stock.

Papers collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deed to receive royalties on manufacture of bricks on land near Southall, Hayes, with plan, 1877.

Personal property records of Sir William Clay, including conveyance to Thames Valley Railway Company of land in Teddington, 1865; conveyances to South Western Railway, 1868 and 1929; conveyance by Merritts Contractors Ltd to Metropolitan Housing Corporation Ltd, 1929; and deeds of covenant for houses in Wellington Gardens, Teddington, 1951.

Records of Lugg and Company Ltd, brick merchants, comprising financial ledgers, day books and financial account books.

Minutes and papers of the London District Committee of the National Union of Vehicle Builders.

Records of the Belgravia Dairy Company, comprising financial ledgers, 1925-1931.

London related material from the Bryson Collection of Business Archives and Ephemera, 1760-1951:

• Records of Morgan Crucible Co Ltd comprising working instructions for Morgan's Coke Fired Tilting Furnace type "CCA" 400 lbs capacity, with drawings of furnace, 1942.
  • Lease for 18 years from William Scott to Walker Norwood, mealman, of Twelve Acre Close (now 2 closes) in Hampton Wick, endorsed with agreement to let barn and rickyard, 1782 Mar - 1784 Apr.
  • Duckham's Digest "Links", Vol X, No 2, published by Alexander Duckham and Co Ltd, with Festival of Britain guide, 1951.
  • Probate copy of will of Samuel Myers of Golden Lane, colourman, proved in Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1777 Aug.
  • Marriage settlement between Sir Matthew Blakiston and Annabella Bayly relating to mansion at East Hill and other houses and lands in Wandsworth and Battersea, 1760 Mar.
  • Deed poll by Charles Robert Edward Bell, match manufacturer of Albert House, Wandsworth, changing his surname from Grubb to Bell, with extract from The Times attached, 1880 Dec.

Records of Currys Group plc, 1896-1985. The collection comprises records of the parent company and a few records of subsidiary and associated companies.

The records of the parent company include memoranda and articles of association (ACC/3485/1-3), a series of board minute books, 1922-79 (with gaps) (ACC/3485/4-16), which, in addition to policy decisions, include minutes of some annual general meetings and committee meetings, one separate AGM minute book, 1927-72 (ACC/3485/17) and an almost unbroken series of annual reports and statements of accounts presented to shareholders, 1925-83 (ACC/3485/18-74). There are also minutes of meetings of three committees: the directors' committee (known also at various times as the depot management committee, the joint managing directors' committee and the group management committee), 1927-85 (ACC/3485/77-124), at which decisions concerning the operation of the business especially at branch level were taken, the committee of the staff life assurance scheme, 1952-8 (ACC/3485/125) and the sealing committee, 1966-8 (ACC/3485/126). The collection also includes a few share records (ACC/3485/127-31), internal accounting and financial records (ACC/3485/132-43), records relating to the administration of the business (ACC/3485/144-9) and records relating to property (ACC/3485/150-60).

Records of the The Empire Stone Works, consisting of rolled plans, 1950-1990, from the Drawing Office at Narborough. Among the buildings with which the company was involved are: Battersea Park Pagoda, British Museum, Ford Factory Dagenham, Bank of England, Haberdasher's Hall, Westminster Abbey, Royal Ballet School, Royal Free Hospital and Kingston Power Station.

Records of J Lyons and Company Limited, food manufacturers and caterers, 1891-1995. The archives reflect all aspects of the company's history. There are some of the usual company records relating to management, shareholding and administration, but the collection is particularly strong in what may be termed ephemera. There are hundreds of photographs, from 1887 up to the present day, a few films and videos, and large collections of press cuttings, advertisements, menus and even a set of lithographs which were commissioned by the company after the Second World War as a way of brightening up Lyons Corner Houses.

Records of Holliday and Greenwood Limited, building contractors, 1903-1909, comprising three items relating to the construction and opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum, including a framed print of the building.

Records of Maudslay Sons and Field Ltd, marine and mechanical engineers and boiler makers, 1889-1904, consisting of agendas and draft minutes of directors' meetings and meetings of shareholders, cash books, sales records, production records and wages records.

Records of Sheer Pride Limited, metal office furniture manufacturer, 1941-1979, including five directors' minute books, company annual returns and one file and one register relating to share transfers.

Records of the British Tyre and Rubber Company, and associated merged or subsidiary companies, 1864-1978. This substantial collection consists mainly of statutory business records of associated companies with very little relating to production: meeting minutes of the board 1864-1937, directors minutes, 1868-1871, general meeting minutes, 1864-1918, shareholders committee minutes, 1875, debenture trustee minutes, 1887-97, 1901-02, finance and executive committee minutes 1864-1866; share ledgers, c 1917-38; balance sheets and accounts, 1920-1936; ledgers, c 1931-1934, private ledgers, 1934-61; journals, 1939-1942, private journals, 1934-1960; private cash books, 1926-62, petty cash books, 1938-8; cheque account books, 1933-8; bills receivable books, 1935-64; nominal accounts for Calcutta, 1889-1954, and Christchurch, 1920-44; and Durban private ledger, 1900-1922.

Records of the Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company, 1844-1949. The records include minutes of directors' meetings, correspondence, half-yearly reports of the company, newspaper cuttings and miscellaneous papers. Also notice of meeting of shareholders of Crystal Palace District Gas Company.

Records of the Crystal Palace District Gas Company, later called the South Suburban Gas Company, 1853-1949. The records include deeds of settlement, proprietors' and directors' meeting minutes and committee meeting minutes and a volume relating to a Parliamentary Bill, 1903.

Records of the Equitable Gas Light and Coke Company, 1831-1949, including minutes of Director's meetings; minutes of shareholder meetings; minutes of Committee of Works; minutes of Committee of Accounts and General Purposes; minutes of the Conference of representatives from the Equitable, London and Chartered Gas Light Companies; deed of settlement; site plan of gasworks; legal case papers and press cuttings.

Records of the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, 1812-1949, including Director's meeting minutes; Proprietors' Meeting minutes; Committee of Accounts, Finance and Audit minutes; Committee of Works minutes; Committee of Works and Products minutes; Committee of Chemistry and Machinery minutes; Committee of Light and Experiments minutes; Committee on Machinery and Works minutes; Committee on the Provision for Wear and Tear minutes; financial accounts; map of London Gas Companies' Districts; evidence presented to various Committees including Select Committees; proceedings in Parliament relating to the gas companies; and Gas Light and Coke Company's Acts, Charter and Bye-Laws.

Records of Higgs and Hill Limited, builders, and of subsidiary or merged companies, 1868-1978. The records are largely of financial nature, but do include other administrative material and contract information. There is a particularly good run of tender books for the period 1906-1965, detailing all the jobs for which Higgs and Hill tendered, regardless of whether or not they won the contract.

Records of Holliday and Greenwood Limited, building contractors, 1901-1978. This collection consists of a general file compiled by G Holliday to record contracts, a paper by G Holliday entitled "The Apprentice Master Scheme in the Borough of Brentford and Chiswick, 1947-1950" and a series of photographs recording various buildings worked on by the company.

Records of Harrisons Nursery Garden in Kensington, 1755-1839. The most interesting are the records of the nursery and seed business begun by Henry Hewitt in 1775 or earlier and carried on by his nephews John and Samuel Harrison. These include account books and stock books which list a wide variety of seeds of vegetables and flowers, bulbs bought from Holland, and seedlings of various ornamental trees, shrubs and fruit trees. Some were grown at the nursery but the majority were grown by country farmers on contract. The business was run with some success and had regular clients in all parts of England including many titled families. It was the practice for one of the partners to travel round the country to collect payment for outstanding accounts and probably orders (for the expenses for these trips include many gratuities to gardeners). In spite of this and an apparent high turnover, however, clients were bad at paying bills and the business was sometimes in difficulties. New partners brought fresh capital from time to time. The last partner was William Bristowe who joined in 1819 with, a fourth share, the firm then being described as Harrison and Bristowe. In 1833, however, Samuel Harrison was described as a bankrupt.

Also included are the records of Lane and Prideaux, solicitors, 1775-1839, concerning the settlement of the estate of Samuel Harrison, a bankrupt, and the estate of his uncle Henry Hewitt, d.1790 and other relatives and friends for whom the Harrison family acted as executors, and the payment of annuities under Henry Hewitt's will.

Records of the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company, 1821-1878, including Directors' meeting minutes and orders; Shareholders' meeting signed minutes; Committee for General Purposes signed minutes; Committee for Works signed minutes; Committee for Accounts signed minutes; appointments and emoluments of Officers; Committee for Works rough minutes; summary of half-yearly accounts of Metropolitan Gas Companies including The Imperial, Gas Light and Coke Company, Commercial, Independent, Ratcliff, London, Phoenix, South Metropolitan and Surrey Consumers and bound volume of Acts relating to the Company, Gas, Public Companies and so on.

Records of the Independent Gas Light and Coke Company, 1827-1875, comprising minutes of Directors and Shareholders meetings with some enclosures including letters, notices, circulars, and prospectuses.

Records of J J Lane Limited, engineers, 1873-1957, including letter books, printed catalogues and brochures illustrating the company's products, Sales particulars for disposal of plant, machinery, stores and equipment on winding-up of company and article from journal "Laundry Record and Journal" giving brief history of company.

Records of the London Gas Light and Coke Company, 1833-1883, comprising Directors' meetings signed minutes; Shareholders' meetings signed minutes; Committee of Works, Estimates, Contracts and Buildings signed minutes; Committee of Finance signed minutes; and Committees of Works, Finance and Inspection, and General Board signed minutes.

Records of the City of London Gas Light and Coke Company, 1705-1881, comprising deeds of title and co-partnerships and letters, relating to premises in Water Lane, Pigs Quay Wharf and other premises between Tudor Street and Water Street; and deeds relating to premises between Whitefriars Dock, Victoria Embankment and Tudor Street, near to Dorset Street.

Records of the Ratcliff Gas Light and Coke Company, including Bill and Act (4 Geo. IV cap. xcviii) for lighting with gas the parishes of St. Botolph, Aldgate, St. Paul, Shadwell, and parts of St. George-in-the-East, St. John, Wapping, Mile End Old Town and Ratcliff, 1823; notices; particulars of sale of shares in the company; agreements and contracts; papers relating to legal actions and lawsuits; correspondence; and papers relating to Company premises in Stepney and Wapping.

Records of the Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company, including half yearly report and accounts submitted by the Directors of the Commercial Gas Company to the Proprietors; reports of proceedings of ordinary half yearly meetings; register of stockholders attending ordinary annual meetings of the Commercial Gas Company; original prospectus of the company; bye laws of the company; letters about Robert Jones and copies of articles by and about him; petition presented on behalf of stokers and gas workers; statement of average rates of wages paid during the year to various grades; photograph of the centenary dinner of the company, and two letters from the Rt. Hon. Hugh Gaitskell, M.P., Ministry of Fuel and Power; deed of trust and settlement of the Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company; alphabetical list of shareholders recording their receipt of the first dividend; agreement with other companies as to sphere of influence of the Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company, and indemnity and map; minutes of evidence before committee of inquiry into the company's proposed bill; Act for incorporating the Commercial Gas Light and Coke Company; Act to convert stock of the Commercial Gas Company and insurance policy on the company's works at Jonsons Fields, Stepney.

General records relating to the supply of gas, 1825-1948, collected by the North Thames Gas Board and predecessor companies. Includes draft Parliamentary reports leading up to the Act for better regulating the supply of gas to the metropolis, 1860; minutes of weekly meetings of a Committee of Chairmen of the Metropolitan Gas Companies in connection with the Parliamentary Committee inquiring into the Metropolis Gas Act, 1860; Bill and relevant papers concerning the proposed amalgamation of all or some of the metropolitan gas companies; drafts, petitions and briefs concerning the London Corporation Gas Bill; report from the Board of Trade on the current Railway, Tramway, Gas and Water Bills, 1870; Gas and Water Facilities Bill, 1870; press cuttings; statistical information about gas companies, 1865.

Also papers relating to individual gas companies including Bill to establish a company for illuminating London and Westminster with oil gas (the London and Westminster Oil Gas Company), 1825; minutes of evidence before the House of Lords' select committee on the Phoenix Gas Bill, 1864; half yearly reports and accounts submitted by the Directors of the Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Co. to the Proprietors; Bills and Acts affecting the powers of the South Metropolitan Gas Light and Coke Company; Bill amending powers of the Surrey Consumers' Gas Light and Coke Association; annual reports and accounts submitted by the Directors of the Surrey Consumers' Gas Company to the Shareholders.

Records of the Equitable Gas Light and Coke Company, including endorsement to be made on the deed of settlement, 1835; supplemental deed of settlement, 1838; certificate of formal registration of the company, 1844; reports of the Company's Directors; papers relating to legal proceedings and lawsuits; correspondence; agreements and contracts; papers relating to premises owned by the Company in Kensington, Westminster, Pimlico and Chelsea.

Records of the Great Central Gas Consumers Company, 1846-1870, including certificate of formal registration of the company; reports of the Company's Directors; bills of costs in various legal transactions and suits; correspondence agreements; contracts for lighting various parishes; deeds and plans for various premises.

Records of the London Gas Light Company, including half yearly reports and accounts submitted by the Directors of the Company to the Shareholders; contracts for lighting parts of Chelsea, Saint Pancras and the Tothill Fields districts; agreements with various road authorities concerning the laying down of gas mains in South London; and papers relating to premises in Lambeth and Battersea.

Records of the North Woolwich Undertaking, comprising papers relating to a messuage called "the Gallions" and 115 acres in North Woolwich, and 10 acres in the parish of Barking, 1774-1801.

Records of the Western (Cannel) Gas Light Company, including half yearly reports and accounts submitted by the Directors of the Western Gas Light Company Limited to the shareholders; certificates of registration of the company; return of schedule to the deed of settlement, showing name, address and profession of shareholders; list of proprietors of the company, showing name, address and number of shares held by each; assignment of debts and shares as security for repayment; contract for lighting part of Notting Hill lighting district; agreements and licences for laying mains in various districts; schedule of deeds, drafts and correspondence for company premises in various locations including Kensington, Westminster, Marylebone and Kensal Green.

Records of the Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Company, 1824-1880, including Proprietors' meeting minutes; Directors' meetings signed minutes; minutes of the Committee of Directors on extravagant burning; and minutes of the Accounts Committee of Directors.

Records of Shoreditch Independent Gas Light Company, comprising minutes of Directors' meetings, 1824-1827.

Signed minutes of the Committee of Management of the South London Gas Light and Coke Company, 1823-1824.

Records of Spalding and Hodge, stationers, 1781-1911; and subsidiary or merged companies including Busbridge and Hodge, papermakers and Suttaby and Company, booksellers. Also records of the Stationers' Book Society. The records include business agreements, legal documents relating to properties, wages books, cash books, stock books, bills, rules and regulations for staff, letters patent, brochures about Spalding and Hodge and their history, inventories, correspondence and price lists. Stationers' Book Society records comprise minutes, accounts, and an address by Thomas Spalding.