at Perivale; Leighton House; Ruskin Avenue, Kew – the present site of The National Archives; and Hounslow), including the Archive of Art and Design; the Beatrix Potter Collections; the V&A Theatre and Performance Archives; and the V&A's own institutional archive. Architecture Blythe House was designed by the Office of Works under Sir Henry Tanner. Its overall style is Edwardian Baroque in pinkish-red brick with Portland stone dressing. The building is four storeys high, with attics and sub-basements, and comprises long north and south ranges which are linked by two cross-ranges. The original plans intended for east and west ranges to be added, forming a rectangular plan; the east range was built 1921–22, but the west range was not built. Until around 1925 the building had its own power station, supplying electricity to passenger and goods lifts, printing presses and more than 11,000 lamps; the chimney, centred to the south of the building, is in the style of a campanile. Pevsner described the building as contributing to a "curiously muddled area …its vast bulk not very convincingly dressed up with Wrenaissance trimmings." The walls of the main workrooms were clad in glazed bricks, rather than the usual plaster. These were said to "afford a good reflecting surface for light and are also to be commended for sanitary reasons." This may have been a retrospective justification: the Controller of the Bank was initially against the innovation as being cold and prone to condensation, and preferred plastering. However, the plasterers were at that time on strike, and completion of the building would have been delayed by six months if the glazed bricks were not used instead. He was also swayed by seeing similar bricks used in the new offices of the Prudential Assurance Company. Blythe House and the associated post office were listed grade II in 2004. Film location Blythe House was used as a location for television series in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Minder and The New Avengers. The building is featured extensively as the fictional headquarters of "The Circus" in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Used as exterior shots of ITV drama The Halcyon and the Netflix series The Crown. Used to portray a hospital in the film The Father. Notable people Michael Collins was employed as a boy clerk at Blythe House from July 1906 – April 1910. References Houses completed in 1903 Grade II