The Keep

The Keep is a purpose built archive and historical resource centre which stores, conserves and gives the public access to the records of its three managing partners: The East Sussex Record Office, The University of Sussex Special Collections, and the Royal Pavilion and Museums Local History Collections. The Keep also houses the library and office of The Sussex Family History Group, functions as headquarters of Friends of The Keep Archives, and holds the Historic Environment Record database for East Sussex. From November 2018, it has also functioned as the South East Hub for the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project for The British Library. 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, opened on 31 October 2013, superseding the former East Sussex Record Office in the county town of Lewes.

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.

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