THE LONDON LIBRARY

The London Library is a private library, founded by Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and a group of like-minded readers. Carlyle and his co-founders believed that one should be able to check out a book and then take it home. The British Museum, as the only public library in London in the mid-19th Century, did not allow customers to take books home. Opened in 1841 the London Library was founded by bibliophiles for bibliophiles. Not surprisingly, the library permitted members generous check out periods and this practice continues to this day. The library is located in St. James's Square, London.

Literature and authors have always been very much front and center in this library. Charles Dickens, George Elliot, Charles Darwin, Ian Forster and Edith Sitwell were all members of this private library. Sir Tom Stoppard, the playwright, is the current president. Former presidents include Alfred Lord Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling. There are currently 7,500 members, with a “churn” rate of approximately 25%. This means that the library has to keep moving forward, having to constantly draw in new members. Membership currently costs £395 per annum, with no joining fee. Members have a constitutional and vocational desire to voice their opinions. This encourages a constant and lively two-way dialog between the 60 full-time staff and the members.

The library has a million volumes, the whole of the collection is shelved on-site, and as a consequence, books are crammed into every nook and cranny. A major refurbishment program is nearing completion, and this has increased shelf-space by 30%. The library has grown organically since its’ 19th Century beginnings. Three structures, the Back Stacks, the St. James’s Building stacks and the Central Stacks are connected; it seems to the novice stranger, in a very haphazard way. Some of the earliest stacks, built in 1898 are “listed” by the British Government, because they are the only surviving library shelving system of their kind still in use in the UK. Each floor literally supports the one above and below, like a giant “erector set”.

These stacks have a charm and majesty all of their own, even down to the Victorian hand-painted wall signs, indicating up or down directions to parts of the collections.

A fourth set of stacks, housing a new art library, built over four floors, is a delightful new addition. Modern steel and wood treatments, combined with illuminated glass walls for the upper mezzanine level, give one the feeling that the books are somehow floating. This is the very best of library design work --the lay-out is highly practical and the effect is visually stunning.

The collection was originally re-cataloged by Charles Hagberg Wright, who was the head librarian from 1893 to 1940 and is heavily weighted towards the humanities. The collection is divided by subjects, and then into floors within the stacks. So for example, the Back stacks contain the following classifications; topography, history, science and miscellaneous and annuals, spread over seven floors. Art is the second biggest stand-alone classification, after literature. The Central stacks classifications are; fiction, philology, anecdotes, biography, philosophy, religion, children’s books and law. Periodicals and a huge newspaper collection, are stored in the basement. There are some odd anomalies within this rather creaky classification system. World War I is referred to as European War I, and, you’ve guessed it, WW2 is referred to as European War II. (No mention of Iwo Jima, the Dardanelles or General Slim, then!).


The catalog is equally creaky. Nearly half of the collection is computerized, and easily searchable in the usual way. The other half of the collection is cataloged in what are called the “Guard Books”. These are printed volumes, classified as if they were a card catalog. Titles are classified as per the broad outlines detailed above. Books are then given a sub-heading within that classification, and then are shelf-marked with the initial of the author’s last name. So, for example, a book by John Wells, on the history of the London Library, is classified under “Bibliography.Libraries”. Having found the bibliography section on floor five of the Central stack, it is a simple matter of following the shelf nearly to the end, where under ‘W’, for Wells, one will find the title. Books do not have labels on their spines, instead customers and staff rely on the shelf-mark system.

On first examination this system seems cumbersome compared with Dewey. However, there are two principal advantages. Firstly, serendipitous browsing “around” a topic is a joy. Secondly, it facilitates the shelving of foreign language editions within the one shelf mark. Therefore, three editions of War and Peace, in English, French and Russian, will be shelved in Fiction, under ‘T’ for Tolstoy. The library has a huge number of titles in over 50 foreign languages, with especially strong representation in the romance languages.



The library has a devoted conservation department, who re-bind 4,500 books every year. We had an excellent tour of the department by Stella Worthington. Many of the volumes in the library are first editions and very rare. The London Library believes that it is not a museum, that books are for using and consequently, 97% of the collection is available for loan. The library has a 4th folio edition of Shakespeare that forms part of the 3% of holdings that are under lock and key. We were also lucky enough to see a 1521 edition of a book of poems that had belonged to Henry VIII.

On average, the London Library adds 8,000 new titles to the collection every year. But it also has a “no weeding” policy. Books are not thrown away, and weeding only ever happens if a title is an exact duplication of a title already owned. The library rarely buys paperbacks. After all, the book may be on the shelf for 200 years, and in this library it will be expected to last. The library also operates an extraordinary postal lending system. If a member lives outside of London, or in Europe (temporarily or permanently),titles are mailed out to the member at no cost. The reader stands the cost of the return postage and has to replace the book if it is lost in transit. The circulation desk think nothing of posting a book that may be a first edition, and 200 years old, to a member who wants to read it!

This is a service-orientated organization. The staff takes great pride in their work, as was evidenced from the excellent tour that Helen O’Neill and Stella Worthington gave us. There is much evidence of on-going development at the London Library. It is a thriving and healthy organization. It is a charming, unique and delightful building. If I lived in London, the ink would already be dry on my application form!

London Library website: http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/