OLIVER BULLOUGH
No 1 the Sanctuary: the surprising home of Britain’s first line of defence against money laundering
If you take Westminster Abbey’s Victoria Street exit and walk past the gift shop, you’ll find a golden-yellow, Gothic Revival block, with a steeply pitched roof rising from a row of battlements. This architectural confection is No 1 the Sanctuary, and a plaque by the door announces its tenant: The Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which is the kind of curious appendix to the British constitution that might have amused Charles Dickens.