www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk re Deed Poll and below is copied from their web site.
"By Deed Poll, you can officially change any part or all of your name. For example,
you can change your forenames, surname (or both), add names, remove names, change the
spelling of your names or rearrange your existing names. You can change your name by Deed
Poll as often as you want, at any time and for any reason provided it is not for deceptive
or fraudulent purposes.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no central register of name changes in the United
Kingdom. Deed Polls are not registered anywhere unless they are "enrolled" i.e.
lodged for safe keeping, in the Close Rolls of the Chancery (from 1851 to 1902) and from
1903, in the Enrolment Books of the Supreme Court of Judicature, which is located within
the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London.
Enrolling a Deed Poll provides a public record of a person's name change and since
1914 the details of the name change are published in either the London Gazette or Belfast
Gazette.
Deed Polls that have been enrolled at the Royal Courts of Justice in London remain with us
for five years. After which (and going back to 1851), they can be found at the National
Archives, which is located at Kew in Richmond, Surrey."