A tribute to 25 Southampton Buildings near Chancery Lane, London, the home of the Patent Office and the Patent Office Library for the best part of 150 years, but now housed in the British Library building at St Pancras.
The book is a tale of considerable achivements under the Commissioners but also reveals some strange goings-on: financial irregularities; nepotism; and conflict between senior officials leading to government enquiry and censure. It shows the history of a public office in Victorian Britain.
