London Library

The London Library is an independent lending library in the St James’s area of Westminster. It has stood at 14 St James’s Square since 1845, after moving from its first temporary home. The building is a quiet presence among the grand clubs and offices of the square. Thomas Carlyle founded the library in 1841 to escape the crowded conditions of the British Museum Library. He disliked the lack of seats, the close confinement, and the rule that books could not be borrowed. Carlyle’s frustration led him to propose a private subscription library where members could take books home. The library is a registered charity run by a board of up to fifteen trustees. It has its own byelaws and the power to make its own rules. T. S. Eliot served as president and once called the library’s disappearance a disaster to civilisation. The library holds a royal charter granted by Elizabeth II in 2004, replacing earlier charters from 1933 and 1968. It is self-supporting, relying on membership fees and donations rather than public funding. The collections span literature, art, history, philosophy and travel, with more than a million items available. Visitors find shelves of books arranged on open access, a rare policy in large libraries. Members can wander the labyrinthine stacks without a fixed aim. The library’s classification system was reorganised in the 1890s by Charles Hagberg Wright. Rare books are kept secure, but ninety-five per cent of the collection is on open shelves. Writers such as Arthur Koestler and Colin Wilson recalled the library’s atmosphere with vivid detail. The reading rooms and stacks remain a place where books are both discovered and borrowed freely.