The London Library is quite rightly considered one of the oldest buildings in Great Britain, as it was founded in 1841. Over time, this place became extremely popular among connoisseurs of reading and, of course, many tourists interested in architecture. Learn more at london1.one.
Another feature of the library is its interesting history. In addition to the usual data, it also contains criminal moments. Intrigued? Then get comfortable and enjoy reading our article.
Idea of creation
The library was created at the initiative of Thomas Carlyle. He was very disappointed with the conditions at the British Museum Library. Its premises were very cramped and couldn’t accommodate many visitors at the same time.
In addition, many books were unavailable to readers and Thomas didn’t really like the staff there.
Therefore, he decided to create a spacious private library with free access to books.
Presidents
Among its first presidents, it’s important to single out the Earl of Clarendon, William Thackeray, William Gladstone and Edward Bunbury.
Charles Dickens, Harold Nicolson, Richard Monckton-Milnes and Michael Astor also played a significant role in the development of the library.
Reconstruction
The London Library was reconstructed in the 1890s. That process took place under the leadership of Charles Hagberg Wright.
He also carried out a large-scale reorganisation of the library collection, using his own unique classification system.
Serial book thief
It is important to note that the library can boast numerous valuable volumes.
Therefore, it was once robbed by William Jacques, a famous London hunter for old books. Subsequently, the stolen volumes underwent a thorough examination, after the thief decided to sell them at an auction. Thus, it was established that they belonged to the library. The police, for their part, conducted an investigation into William Jacques and convicted him.
The copies were returned to the library collection and its management decided to improve the security measures.
Versatile collection
The library collection is quite multifaceted.
In particular, some copies originate from the 16th century. All of them contain information about literature, fine arts, architecture, history, religion, geography and philosophy.
Books on law and medicine are present in the collection too. However, unfortunately, their number isn’t so big.
In addition, the fund has old periodicals. They also cover various topics and fields, from sports to poetry.
Significant loss
1944 was a tragic page in the history of the London Library. Then heavy bombing destroyed more than 16,000 volumes. Therefore, in the post-war period, the library management focused on preserving all books and publications, even the oldest and outdated ones.
This policy was cancelled in 2019. Instead, it was decided to remove volumes that were converted into electronic format. By the way, there were already many of them at that time. Books with outdated information and some volumes in foreign languages were also removed.
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