The London Library: Lost in the Stacks
- Taryn
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
After my classmate, Cari, and I toured the Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style exhibit at Buckingham Palace, we met the rest of the group at the London Library, located at 14 St. James's Square in Westminster for our private tour. We were greeted by Amanda Stebbings, head of member services, who proceeded to take us on a magical tour of the London Library.
This by far has been my favorite library in London up to this point. Tiered stacks of colorful hardbacks, connected by black iron staircases and wood-framed mezzanines, capture the quintessential charm of an old library. I found this quote from novelist Colin Wilson which sums up the London Library perfectly: "I have always had an obsession about books, and in this place I felt like a sex addict in the middle of a harem."
The London Library was established in 1841 and found its permanent home at 14 St. James's in 1845. There are roughly one million books in the collection and most are available for loan. This makes it the largest lending library in Europe. It is an independent lending library that requires an annual membership of 650 pounds, about 875 US dollars and it currently has 7500 members.
We learned from Amanda that the library has had many famous members such as Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Virginia Wolf, Arthur Conan Boyle, Bram Stoker who actually wrote in a book , & Ian Fleming who found the name for his main character, James Bond, from the shelves of the library. Many films and series have been filmed at the library, such as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire from 2024.
The reading room provides many comfortable spots for reading such as a group of cozy leather armchairs surrounding an old fireplace and reading tables with lamps. I really loved the wooden calendar pictured below, which marks the day of our visit!
A fun part of the tour was exploring the back stacks, which are located on numerous levels. The London Library made up their own classification system and many of the categories gave us some laughs since books on very different subjects are shelved together, such as "Bullfighting" & "Burial," though it could be argued that those relate, and "Feminism" & "Fermentation."
Below is a beautiful wooden staircase that contrasts with the green carpet and demonstrates how many levels the main building has.
I was obsessed with these bound volumes of "Author Catalogues." I have never seen handles on books like these before. Some are well-worn and from what I learned at the British Library Conservation Centre, it is possible that the more pristine volumes in this collection may have been rebound.
The London Library book labels were noteworthy too. The example below looked a bit older than some others that I saw. I love how this label includes "St. James's Square."
The stacks below are part of the Art Room and are organized into a modern multi-tiered stacking system and mezzanine. I will tell you that the steel staircase leading to the lower level is extremely steep and terrifying to descend. These stacks had some convenient features such as hidden pull-out shelves, which are super handy when browsing over-sized art books.
Last of all, I thought the dumbwaiter system below for books was adorable, so I had to include a photo. Take a look at the buttons on the left—they give you a sense of just how many levels of back stacks are tucked away in this part of the building
Next up is the Maughan Library at Kings College London!
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