The London Library is the world's largest
independent lending libraryA Subscription Library is a library that is supported by private funds raised by membership fees or endowments...
. It is located in the
City of WestminsterThe City of Westminster is a borough of London with city status. It is located west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, and forms part of Inner London and the bulk of London's central area....
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
It was founded in 1841 by (amongst others)
Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.
Coming from a strict Calvinist family,...
, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the
British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is located in London and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents,...
. The library has been based at 14
St. James's SquareSt. James's Square is the only square in the exclusive St James's district of the City of Westminster. It has predominantly Georgian and neo-Georgian architecture and a private garden in the centre...
since 1845, having originally occupied the first floor of the
Travellers ClubThe Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs, having been established in 1819, and was recently described by the Los Angeles Times as "the quintessential English gentleman's club"...
at 49
Pall MallPall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, situated in SW1 and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a...
.
Membership is open to all, on payment of an annual subscription. The library now has some 7,000 members, mostly private individuals , and retains a club-like atmosphere.
The London Library is a self-supporting, independent institution.
The London Library is the world's largest
independent lending libraryA Subscription Library is a library that is supported by private funds raised by membership fees or endowments...
. It is located in the
City of WestminsterThe City of Westminster is a borough of London with city status. It is located west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, and forms part of Inner London and the bulk of London's central area....
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
It was founded in 1841 by (amongst others)
Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.
Coming from a strict Calvinist family,...
, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the
British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is located in London and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, patents,...
. The library has been based at 14
St. James's SquareSt. James's Square is the only square in the exclusive St James's district of the City of Westminster. It has predominantly Georgian and neo-Georgian architecture and a private garden in the centre...
since 1845, having originally occupied the first floor of the
Travellers ClubThe Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs, having been established in 1819, and was recently described by the Los Angeles Times as "the quintessential English gentleman's club"...
at 49
Pall MallPall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, situated in SW1 and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a...
.
Membership is open to all, on payment of an annual subscription. The library now has some 7,000 members, mostly private individuals , and retains a club-like atmosphere.
Trustees & Governance
The London Library is a self-supporting, independent institution. It is a registered
charityA charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . The term is relatively general and can technically refer to a public charity or a private foundation. It differs from other types of NPOs in that its focus is centered around goals of a general philanthropic nature A charitable...
whose sole aim is the advancement of education, learning, and knowledge. Incorporated by Royal Charter, it has its own bylaws and the power to make or amend its rules. It has a royal patron, an elected president and vice presidents, and is administered by an elected board of a maximum of 15 trustees, including the Chairman and the Hon. Treasurer.
The
Earl of ClarendonEarl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776. The title was created for the first time in the Peerage of England in 1661 for the statesman Edward Hyde, 1st Baron Hyde...
was the library's first president,
ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
was its first auditor and
GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone was a British Liberal Party statesman and four times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
and Sir Edward Bunbury were on the first committee. The Belgian freedom fighter and former Louvain librarian
Sylvain van de WeyerJean-Sylvain Van de Weyer was a Belgian politician, and then the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom....
was a vice-president from 1848-1874. (Van de Weyer's father-in-law
Joshua BatesJoshua Bates was an international financier who divided his life between the United States and the United Kingdom.Bates was born in Commercial St. Weymouth, Massachusetts. A merchant and a banker, in 1828 he became associated with the great house of Baring Brothers & Co. of London, of which he...
was a founder of the
Boston Public LibraryThe Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow...
in 1852).
A vigorous and long-serving presence in later Victorian times was
Richard Monckton-MilnesRichard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton was an English poet and politician.-Biography:The son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Yorkshire, and the Hon. Henrietta Monckton, daughter of the fourth Lord Galway, he was born in London. He was educated privately, and entered Trinity...
, later Lord Houghton, a friend of
Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale, OM, RRC was an English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence during the Crimean War for her pioneering work in nursing, and was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night to tend injured soldiers...
.
DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
was among the founder members. In more recent times,
Lord ClarkKenneth McKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, OM, CH, KCB, FBA was a British author, museum director, broadcaster, and one of the best-known art historians of his generation...
and
T. S. EliotThomas Stearns Eliot, OM , was a poet, playwright, and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Among his most famous writings are The Love Song of J...
have been among the library's presidents, and Sir
Harold NicolsonFor the former American Central Intelligence Agency officer and spy for Russia, see Harold Nicholson.Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was an English diplomat, author, diarist and politician...
, Sir
Rupert Hart-DavisSir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
and the
Hon Michael AstorMichael Langhorne Astor was a British Conservative Party politician and fourth child of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor and Nancy Witcher Langhorne, both Members of Parliament.Astor was educated at Eton College...
have been Chairmen.
In 1981 the patron was HM Queen Elizabeth the
Queen MotherElizabeth Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1936 until 1952 as the wife of King George VI. After her husband's death, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
. Lord Annan was president. The vice-presidents were Sir
Isaiah BerlinSir Isaiah Berlin, OM was a philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century...
, Sir
Rupert Hart-DavisSir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
,
Lord KenyonLord Kenyon, Baron of Gredington, in the County of Flint, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1788 for the lawyer and judge Sir Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baronet. He served as Master of the Rolls and as Lord Chief Justice of England. Kenyon had already been created a Baronet, of...
. Lord Rayne, Hon. Sir
Steven RuncimanSir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH —known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages. Arguably, his best known work is his three volume A History of the Crusades .-Life:Born in Northumberland, both of his parents were Members of Parliament for the...
, Dame
Veronica WedgwoodDame Veronica Wedgwood Hon. D.Litt OM DBE was an English historian who generally published under the name C. V. Wedgwood...
, and Dame
Rebecca WestCicely Isabel Fairfield , known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public...
. The chairman was
Philip ZieglerPhilip Sandeman Ziegler is a prominent British biographer and historian.-Background:Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Fields School Oxford. He was afterwards at Eton College and New College, Oxford...
, and the committee included:
Correlli BarnettCorrelli Douglas Barnett CBE FRSL is an English military historian, who has also written extensively on the United Kingdom's "industrial decline".-Personal life:...
,
Bamber GascoigneBamber Gascoigne is a British television presenter and author.-Biography:Bamber Gascoigne won scholarships to both Eton College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature. He then spent a year as a Commonwealth Fund Scholar at Yale University...
, Lewis Golden,
John GrossJohn Gross is an English literary critic, author, and anthologist. He was the editor of The Times Literary Supplement from 1974 to 1981, a book editor and book critic on the staff of The New York Times from 1983 to 1989, and theatre critic for The Sunday Telegraph from 1989 to 2005...
,
Duff Hart-DavisPeter Duff Hart-Davis , generally known as Duff Hart-Davis, is a British biographer, naturalist and journalist, who writes for the The Independent newspaper. He is married to Phyllida Barstow and has one son and one daughter...
,
Sir Charles JohnsonSir Charles Hepburn-Johnston GCMG was a senior British diplomat.He was born in London, the son of Ernest Johnston and Emma Hepburn, on 11 March 1912. He was educated at Winchester, and Balliol College, Oxford, joining the Diplomatic Service in 1936...
, Sir
Oliver MillarSir Oliver Nicholas Millar, GCVO, FSA, FBA, was a British art historian. He was an expert on 17th century British painting, and a leading authority on Anthony van Dyck in particular. He served in the Royal Household for 41 years from 1947, becoming Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures in 1972. He...
,
Anthony QuintonAnthony Quinton, Baron Quinton is a British political and moral philosopher, metaphysician, and materialist philosopher of mind.He is a fellow of All Souls, became a Fellow of New College, Oxford in 1955, and was President of Trinity College, Oxford from 1978 to 1987.He was president of the...
, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, and
Claire TomalinClaire Tomalin is an English biographer and journalist. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge.She was literary editor of the New Statesman and of the Sunday Times, and has written several noted biographies...
.
Collections
The library's collections, which range from the 1500s to the present day, are strong within the fields of literature, fiction, history, fine and applied art, architecture, history, biography, philosophy, religion, topography, and travel. The social sciences are more lightly covered. Pure and natural sciences, technology, medicine and law are not within the library's purview, although it has some books in all of those fields; books on their histories are normally acquired.
PeriodicalsA periodical publication, or just periodical, is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly...
and annuals on a wide range of subjects are also held in the collections.
In 1944, some stock was lost to bomb damage and in 1970 its few incunabula were sold. This apart, the library has (except for some duplicates) retained all items acquired since its foundation. The library now holds more than one million items, and each year acquires some 8,000 new titles and 800 periodicals. 95 per cent of the collection is housed on open shelves and 97 per cent is available for loan, either on-site or through the post. The Library claims to be the largest lending library in Europe.
The library also subscribes to
ejournalsElectronic journals, also known as ejournals, e-journals, and electronic serials, are scholarly journals or intellectual magazines that can be accessed via electronic transmission. In practice, this means that they are usually published on the Web...
and other
online databasesA bibliographic or library database is a database of bibliographic records. It may be a database containing information about books and other materials held in a library A bibliographic or library database is a database of bibliographic records. It may be a database containing information about...
. All post-1950 acquistions are searchable on the online catalogue, and pre-1950 volumes continue to be added daily as part of the Retrospective Cataloguing Project.
Subscription
In 1903 the annual membership fee was £3. Around the time of the
Great War it was £3 3s, with an entrance fee of £1 1s. During the 1930s it was £4 4s with an entrance fee of £3 3s. By 1946 the annual rate was still £4 4s, but the joining fee had fallen to £2 2s. In November 1981 it was £60 per annum (that would be the equivalent of c£150 in 2008, (using the consumer price index (CPI), or £165.75 using the retail price index (RPI)). From January 2008 it was increased from £210 to £375 per annum, with the same concessionary rates, and no initial fee.
As of January 2009 the annual fee is £395. Concessionary rates are available, including young person's membership and spouse/partner membership.
Further reading
- Grindea, Miron (ed.) (1978). The London Library. Ipswich: Boydell Press/Adam Books.(ISBN 0 85115 098 5).
-
- This book has contributions from:
- Edmund Gosse
Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic, the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Career:...
; J. M. BarrieSir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM , more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish author and dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys...
; Henry JamesHenry James, O.M. was an American author who expatriated to England, and who acquired British nationality near the end of his life. One of the key figures of 19th century literary realism, James was born in the United States, the son of theologian Henry James, Sr., and brother of the philosopher...
; George Moore; T.E. Lawrence; Aldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963...
(all letters);
- and essays by: Raymond Mortimer
Charles Raymond Mortimer Bell , who wrote under the name Raymond Mortimer, was a British writer, known mostly as a critic and literary editor....
; David CecilLord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, usually known as Lord David Cecil, CH , was an English aristocrat, literary scholar, biographer and academic...
; Anthony PowellAnthony Dymoke Powell, CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975...
; Edna O'BrienEdna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
; Angus WilsonSir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.-Biography:Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to...
; Roy FullerRoy Broadbent Fuller was an English writer, known mostly as a poet. He was born in Failsworth, near Oldham, in Lancashire, and brought up in Blackpool. He worked as a lawyer for a building society, serving in the Royal Navy 1941-1946.Poems was his first book of poetry. He began to write fiction...
; David Wright; Sean O'Faolain; Michael Burn; Enoch PowellJohn Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, linguist, writer, academic, soldier and poet.He was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament between 1950 and February 1974, and an Ulster Unionist MP between October 1974 and 1987. He was controversial through most of his career, and his tenure...
; Noel Annan; George MikesGeorge Mikes was a Hungarian-born British author most famous for his humorous commentaries on various countries.-Life:...
; George D. Painter; D. J. EnrightDennis Joseph Enright was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic, and general man of letters.-Life:He was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and educated at Leamington College and Downing College, Cambridge...
; John Julius NorwichJohn Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
; Miles KingtonMiles Beresford Kington was a British journalist, musician and broadcaster.-Early life :...
; J. W. Lambert; John Weightman; A. E. Ellis; Bruce Berlind; Dorothy M. Partington; Stanley Gillam; Douglas Matthews; Michael Higgins; Oliver Stallybrass; Charles Hagberg Wright; Antony Farrell; Marcel Troulay; Colin WilsonColin Henry Wilson , a prolific British writer, first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism, and other topics.-Biography:...
. The cover was by Nicolas BentleyNicolas Clerihew Bentley was a British author and illustrator famous for his humorous cartoon drawings in books and magazines in the 1930s and 1940s...
and drawings by Edward ArdizzoneEdward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, CBE, RA was an artist and illustrator, he was also, a writer, mainly of children's books....
and Michael Lasserson.
- McIntyre, Anthony (2006). Library book : an architectural journey through the London Library, 1841-2006. London: London Library.
- Wells, John (1991). Rude Words: a discursive history of the London Library. London: Macmillan
External links