London Library

The London Library is the world's largest independent lending library, and one of the UK's leading literary institutions. It is located in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, London.

It was founded in 1841 by a group of men who included Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Library. The library has been based at 14 St. James's Square since 1845, having originally occupied the first floor of 49 Pall Mall.

Membership is open to all, on payment of an annual subscription. Life membership is also available, on a scale depending on age. Corporate bodies and other institutions can also join at commercial rate. As of March 2012 the library has 7,155 members.

Trustees and governance

Reynolds Stone bookplate

The London Library is a self-supporting, independent institution. It is a registered charity whose sole aim is the advancement of education, learning, and knowledge. It was originally incorporated by Royal Charter on 13 June 1933, with a supplemental Royal Charter granted on 21 October 1988. On 6 July 2004, the Queen granted the Library a new Royal Charter, which revoked both the 1933 and 1968 charters. It has its own byelaws 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 Honorary Treasurer.

The Earl of Clarendon was the library's first president, Thackeray was its first auditor and Gladstone and Sir Edward Bunbury were on the first committee. The Belgian freedom fighter and former Louvain librarian Sylvain van de Weyer was a vice-president from 1848-1874. (Van de Weyer's father-in-law Joshua Bates was a founder of the Boston Public Library in 1852.)

A vigorous and long-serving presence in later Victorian times was Richard Monckton-Milnes, later Lord Houghton, a friend of Florence Nightingale. Dickens was among the founder members. In more recent times, Lord Clark and T. S. Eliot have been among the library's presidents, and Sir Harold Nicolson, Sir Rupert Hart-Davis and the Hon Michael Astor have been Chairmen.

In 1956 the Library suddenly received a demand from the Westminster City Council for rates (despite being registered as a tax-free charity), and the Inland Revenue was also involved. Most publishers then donated free copies of their books to the library. The final appeal was turned down by the Court of Appeal in 1959, and a letter in The Times of 5 November from the President and Chairman (T. S. Eliot and Rupert Hart-Davis) appealed for funds. An auction of manuscripts from many authors on 22 June 1960 raised £17,000 and £25,000 respectively; enough to clear debts and legal expenses of £20,000. At the sale T. E. Lawrence items from his brother fetched £3,800, Eliot’s The Waste Land fetched £2,800, and Lytton Strachey’s Queen Victoria £1,800, though 170 inscribed books and pamphlets from John Masefield fetched only £200, which Hart-Davis thought "shamefully low". The Queen and Queen Mother both gave some rare and valuable old books.

In 1981 the patron was HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Lord Annan was president. The vice-presidents have included Lord Lyttelton, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, Lord Kenyon, Lord Rayne, Hon. Sir Steven Runciman, Dame Veronica Wedgwood, and Dame Rebecca West. The chairman was Philip Ziegler, and the committee included: Correlli Barnett, Bamber Gascoigne, Lewis Golden, John Gross, Duff Hart-Davis, Sir Charles Johnson, Sir Oliver Millar, Anthony Quinton, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, and Claire Tomalin.

The current president of the Library is Sir Tom Stoppard. The Chairman of the Trustees is Bill Emmott.

Collections

The library's collections, which range from the 16th century to the present day, are strong within the fields of literature, fiction, 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. Periodicals 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 in 2011 it acquired 8,123 books and 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 is the largest lending library in Europe.

It is a central tenet of the Library that, as books are never entirely superseded, and therefore never redundant, the collections should not be weeded of material merely because it is old, idiosyncratic or unfashionable: except in the case of occasional duplicate volumes, almost nothing has ever been discarded from the Library shelves.

The library also subscribes to many ejournals and other online databases. All post-1950 acquisitions are searchable on the on-line 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 First World 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. From January 2008 it was increased from £210 to £375 per annum, with the same concessionary rates, and no initial fee.

As of January 2011 the annual fee for Individual membership is £435. Concessionary rates are available, including Young Person's membership (£220), Spouse/Partner membership and Carlyle membership. Members are able to use the library Monday - Saturday, with late openings until 9pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. Four attractive reading rooms or a choice of individual study spaces, free Wi-Fi, access to electronic publications and internet, reference enquiries and research assistance and a quarterly members' magazine are just some of the other benefits available to members.

Support

The London Library has a Corporate Patron scheme offering many benefits including exclusive hire of the Library for private events. The Founders' Circle is a group dedicated to supporting the running of the Library year by year, ensuring that it has the means to continue at the service of all who have need of its intellectual capital. Named in honour of the first 500 members who set the Library on its feet in 1841, the Founders' Circle come together at a variety of interesting and exclusive events throughout the year.

Individuals can also support the Library by donating to The Book Fund or taking part in Adopt a Book schemes, whereby members can adopt new, favourite or rare books in the Library.

Awards and competitions

The London Library launched a Student Prize in October 2011 in partnership with The Times and FreshMinds. The London Library Student Prize is a writing competition open to all final-year undergraduates studying at higher education institutions in the UK. The theme was "The future of Britain lies with the right-hand side of the brain" and the winner was announced in March 2012 as Ben Mason, who studied Philosophy and Modern Languages (German) at Trinity College, Oxford.

Now in its second year and partnered with The Times and Milkround, The London Library Student Prize 2013 is open for entries. Entrants must write an 800-word piece on the theme "Gap years - a new form of colonialism?", the winning piece to be published in the comment pages of The Times and in The London Library Magazine, with the winner receiving £5000.

Website and social media

The London Library has a Facebook page and Twitter account, with over 7000 users on both Facebook and Twitter. The London Library launched a new website in September 2011, designed and developed by GR/DD.

See also

• List of organisations in the United Kingdom with a royal charter

References

_{London Library's copy of a book by Patrick Leigh Fermor on location, Morea, August 2007}

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; J. M. Barrie; Henry James; George Moore; T. E. Lawrence; Aldous Huxley (all letters);

and essays by: Raymond Mortimer; David Cecil; Anthony Powell; Edna O'Brien; Angus Wilson; Roy Fuller; David Wright; Sean O'Faolain; Michael Burn; Enoch Powell; Noel Annan; George Mikes; George D. Painter; D. J. Enright; John Julius Norwich; Miles Kington; J. W. Lambert; John Weightman; A. E. Ellis; Bruce Berlind; Dorothy M. Partington; Stanley Gillam; Douglas Matthews; Michael Higgins; Oliver Stallybrass; Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright; Antony Farrell; Marcel Troulay; Colin Wilson. The cover was by Nicolas Bentley and drawings by Edward Ardizzone 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
• Wright, C. T. Hagberg & Purnell, C. J. Catalogue of the London Library, St. James's Square, London. 10 vols. London, 1913-55. Includes: Supplement: 1913-20. 1920. Supplement: 1920-28. 1929. Supplement: 1928-53. 1953 (in 2 vols). Subject index: (Vol. 1). 1909. Vol. 2: Additions, 1909-22. Vol. 3: Additions, 1923-38. 1938. Vol. 4: (Additions), 1938-53. 1955.

External links

• The London Library Official website - Further information on the library, including its online catalogue.