Victorian London - Organisations - Government Departments - Stationery Office

STATIONERY OFFICE (HER MAJESTY'S), JAMES STREET, BUCKINGHAM GATE, was established in the year 1785, for the supply of stationery at wholesale prices to the several public departments of government, prior to which time the chief offices of government were supplied by private individuals, under patents from the Crown. The printing of the Excise was long executed under patent by Jacob Tonson, the eminent bookseller, and in 1757 a patent was granted to George Walpole, Earl of Orford, for the supply of stationery to the Treasury, for the period of forty years. The duties of the Stationery Office are performed by a comptroller, a storekeeper, certain clerks, warehousemen, and papercutters. The present comptroller (who has done so much for the efficiency of the office) is J. R. M'Culloch, Esq., author of the Commercial Dictionary, and other standard works in literature and political arithmetic. The present office was long the residence of Lord Milford, and was first fitted up as a Stationery Office in 1820.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850

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Stationery Office, Prince’s-street, Storey’s-gate, Westminster, S.W. Hours 10 till 4.—NEAREST Railway Station, Westminster-bridge; Omnibus Routes, Parliament-street and Victoria-street; Cab Rank, Palace-yard.

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879