The Keep, Brighton

The Keep
The finished building in July 2014, seen from the Southeast
The Keep shown within the city of Brighton and Hove
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Archive
Address	Woollards Way, BRIGHTON BN1 9BP
Town or city	Brighton and Hove
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°51′27″N 0°05′54″W / 50.85757°N 0.09829°W / 50.85757; -0.09829Coordinates: 50°51′27″N 0°05′54″W / 50.85757°N 0.09829°W / 50.85757; -0.09829
Groundbreaking	7 October 2011
Completed	June 2013
Opened	19 November 2013
Inaugurated	31 October 2013
Cost	£19 million
Owner	East Sussex County Council
Technical details
Floor count	3
Floor area	5,933 square metres (63,860 sq ft) (main building); 216 square metres (2,330 sq ft) (Energy Centre)
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Atkins Design Studio
Civil engineer	Kier Longley
Other information
Seating capacity	270
Website
The Keep home page
References

The Keep is an archive and historical resource centre which stores, conserves and gives the public access to over 900 years of records relating to the English county of East Sussex and the Special Collections held by the University of Sussex. It was funded by East Sussex County Council, the City Council of neighbouring Brighton and Hove and the University of Sussex, and was built on land close to the university in the Moulsecoomb area of Brighton and Hove. The building, constructed with a budget of £19 million, superseded the present East Sussex Record Office in the county town of Lewes when it opened on 31 October 2013.

East Sussex was designated an administrative county in 1865, and in 1889 its county council was formed in accordance with the Local Government Act 1888. In 1949, the council set up its archive and record office in The Maltings in the county town of Lewes; they adapted a Grade II-listed former malt house near the castle. Records, documents and objects up to nine centuries old were stored and displayed, such as a letter to the Abbot of Battle Abbey dating from 1101 and bearing King Henry I's seal. The building had a document repository, conservation laboratory and facilities for the public to examine certain records. Following an inspection in 2003, The National Archives allowed the building to remain in use in the short term as long as a new building was provided; and after another inspection in 2006 it condemned the building as "not fit for purpose" in relation to how it stored paper and parchment documents. If a better facility could not be provided within the county, The National Archives could have arranged for public records to be moved to a suitable building elsewhere in England and stored there—all at East Sussex County Council's expense—while other records would remain in the Lewes building, where conditions would get worse. Suggested alternative locations included the national archive facility at Kew, and newly built archives in Cumbria and Kingston upon Hull. As well as "heavily criticis[ing]" the facility after this second inspection, The National Archives removed most of the licences allowing the county council to store records there.