Berkhamsted: The BFI National Archive Kingshill site

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 19 Jul 2009

It seems only right and proper that a project whose aim it is to record photographic images of the British Isles should archive the British Film Institute (BFI)'s own National Archive. So for the record this is the rather unprepossessing entry to their Kingshill site in Berkhamsted. In fact the old tiled barn beyond the gates obscures the view to several large modern archive buildings behind and the site is actually known as the J Paul Getty Junior Conservation Centre. The archive was originally set up as the National Film Library in 1935 and its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955 its name became the National Film Archive, and, in 1992, the National Film and Television Archive. It was renamed the BFI National Archive in 2006, although the sign outside the site here, inside the red railing, has not yet caught up with the change. The 1883 edition of the Ordnance Survey 6" to the mile map shows an isolated farmstead named Kingshill on the site with the same layout of buildings as visible here.

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