Top 10 best London libraries is an intriguing issue for visitors and students at home and abroad. When studying in London, how can you make the most of a free day? Do you simply turn down the lights and explore the universe of words that are concealed behind historical documents? If you’re in the city, spend time in one of London’s best libraries rather than hiding in your room. Something to ponder: Six minutes of reading can improve the quality of your sleep and cut your stress levels by 68%.
You can therefore travel with ancient manuscripts or the newest best-sellers, as the opulent domes with colored glass adorn them sing a billion words from the millions of books they see. You can find your sanctuary in any of them, some of which are the largest libraries in London and others that don’t require a subscription.
This blog selects and analyzes top 10 best London libraries comprehensively and detailedly with benefits, helping you make the best choice of your academic and reading destination. Let’s examine London’s best libraries and the reasons you ought to go.
Top 10 Best London Libraries
Top 1. Senate House Library
- Total Number of Books: 2 million books, 1800 archival collections and 50 special collections
- Year of Establishment: 1836
- Address: Senate House Library, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
- Subscription Fee: Free
- Timings: 9 A.M.– 11 P.M.
- Famous For: The Senate House Library holds the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature, and the Palaeography Room contains a collection of Western European manuscripts, offers beautiful study spaces and loan programs for notebooks and iPads.
Senate House Library which is formerly known as the University of London Library occupies the fourth to the 18th floors of the building, with the public areas of the library on the fourth to seventh floors. The library is open to staff and students of all colleges within the university although levels of access differ between institutions and contains material relevant chiefly to arts, humanities, and social science subjects. The library is administered by the central university as part the Senate House Libraries, and has more than 38,000 registered users. It holds around three million volumes, including 120,000 volumes printed before 1851. The library started with the foundation of the University of London in 1836, but began to develop from 1871 when a book fund was started.
Along with a subscription to over 5,200 journals, other resources include the Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature, and the Palaeography room’s collection of western European manuscripts. The library also holds over 170,000 theses by graduate students. From 2006 onwards, the library has been undergoing a comprehensive refurbishment process.
The library is also home to the University of London archives, which include the central archive of the university itself and many other collections, including the papers of social reformer Charles Booth, philosopher Herbert Spencer, actress and mystic Florence Farr, author and artist Thomas Sturge Moore, writer Opal Whiteley, and publishing company Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd.
Top 2. Bibliothèque Quentin Blake, Institut Français
- Total Number of Books: 40,000
- Year of Establishment: 1910
- Address: Bibiliothèque Quentin Blake, 32 Harrington Road, London SW7 3ES
- Subscription Fee: £50/year for the classic membership
- Timings: 1 P.M.– 6P.M.
- Famous For: Quentin Blake is known as a place where children and their families can enjoy reading, playing, learning, and making up stories together.
After a major revamp in 2015, the Children’s Library of the Institut Français reopened as the Bibliothèque Quentin Blake, in homage to the beloved illustrator. Now twice as big – and twice as beautiful – the free-entry French-language library holds titles by all the greats, from René Goscinny and Hergé to Serge Bloch and Dominique de Saint-Mars. Wooden-floored and stacked with colourful, cube-shaped shelves, the space zings with bookish energy. A soft-pink wall hanging, commissioned for the library, shows a mass of children, birds and adults sitting in trees immersed in books, and exudes Blake’s familiar vim and vigour. One glance is all you need to want to gather every book in sight and rush home to devour them all.
As one of the best libraries in London, this space is a testimony of the magic Quentin Blake created with his illustrations. The biggest French library in the UK is also one of the best free libraries in London. Its welcoming environment features colourful decor, comfy seating, and breathtaking mural artwork. On top of that, while entering one of the nice libraries in London, you will see a special “Roald Dahl” corner! Also, devour the works of the greatest of them all, starting with the gems like timeless Astérix by René Goscinny, Hergé (the generous creator of Tintin) to Dominique de Saint-Mars’s hypnotic and fun illustrative stories she made sure we never forget, much thanks to this place, one of the coolest libraries London! The enchantment by the vivid cubes designated for history’s favourites and wooden flooring invites you to dig in your head in the most famous library in London.
Top 3. The British Library
- Total Number of Books: 200 million (approximately)
- Year of Establishment: 1973
- Address: The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
- Subscription Fee: £45/month
- Timings: 9:30 A.M. – 8 P.M.
- Famous For: The British Library holds the most comprehensive collection of business and intellectual property (IP) material in the United Kingdom and is also the official library of the UK Intellectual Property Office.
The British Library is a research library in London that is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The British Library is a major research library, with items in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library’s collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and items dating as far back as 2000 BC. The library maintains a programme for content acquisition and adds some three million items each year occupying 9.6 kilometres of new shelf space.
Top 4. National Poetry Library
- Total Number of Books: 340,000
- Year of Establishment: 1953
- Address:National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
- Subscription Fee:Free
- Timings: 12 P.M.– 8 P.M.
- Famous For: The National Poetry Library is the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world
The National Poetry Library is a free public collection housed at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre. Situated on the fifth floor of the Royal Festival Hall, overlooking the river Thames, the library aims to hold all contemporary UK poetry publications since 1912. It houses the largest collection in Britain, numbering over 200,000 items, including works by small presses. It also holds audio and video materials, critical texts and works for children for loan and reference.
The library contains work by non-UK poets and publishers and press cuttings are also archived for members’ research. Membership is free and material is borrowed through the national inter-lending library services or returned by post. The library provides support for schools nationally and locally. The venue has an exhibition and event space.
Top 5. The Wiener Holocaust Library
- Total Number of Books: 200,000
- Year of Establishment: 1933
- Address: 29 Russell Sq, London WC1B 5DP, United Kingdom
- Subscription Fee: £120/year for all, except students who pay £60/year.
- Timings: 10 A.M. – 5 P.M.
- Famous For: The Wiener Holocaust Library is dedicated to the archives of the Holocaust and is one of the best libraries in London.
The Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the persecution of the Jews under the Nazis, it was transformed into a research institute and public access library after the end of World War II and is situated in Russell Square, London.
In 2017, and following a campaign by Daniel Plesch who is director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London and other researchers, directed at the UN, the library published an online and searchable version of the catalogue of the archive of the UN War Crimes Commission. It is also home to the UK’s digital copy of the International Tracing Service archive, the physical copy of which is held in the Arolsen Archives – International Center on Nazi Persecution in Bad Arolsen, Germany.
Top 6. National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum
- Total Number of Books: 100,000
- Year of Establishment: 1837
- Address: National Art Library, V&A, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
- Subscription Fee: Free
- Timings: 11 A.M. – 5 P.M.
- Famous For: A permanent collection of over 850,000 printed works and manuscripts.
The National Art Library is a major reference library, situated in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a museum of decorative arts in London. The NAL holds the UK’s most comprehensive collection of both books as art and books about art, which includes many genres and time periods. The NAL is open to the public, and as a closed reference library, items must be requested through the staff and cannot be removed from the reading room. The collections cover a wide range of art and design topics, including books about artists and art techniques, and consists of many different collections materials, including archival materials, artist’s books, and children’s literature. The library also serves as the museum’s curatorial department for book arts. As a reference library, the NAL also serves as a training library for students, curators and museum staff, and the public.
The current mission of the NAL includes making information about art history and practice widely available, and aims to serve both national and international communities.
Top 7. The Maughan Library, King’s College London
- Total Number of Books: 300,000
- Year of Establishment: 1851
- Address: Chancery Ln, London WC2A 1LR, United Kingdom
- Subscription Fee: Students studying at King’s College are only permitted to enter the library
- Timings: 9 A.M. – 1 A.M.
- Famous For: The Maughan Library holds the main King’s collection for the study of Arts and Humanities, Business, Law and Sciences.
The Maughan Library is the main university research library of King’s College London, forming part of the Strand Campus. A 19th-century neo-Gothic building located on Chancery Lane in the City of London, it was formerly the home to the headquarters of the Public Record Office, known as the “strong-box of the Empire”, and was acquired by the university in 2001. Following a £35m renovation designed by Gaunt Francis Architects, the Maughan is the largest new university library in the United Kingdom since World War II.
Designed by Sir James Pennethorne and constructed in 1851, with further extensions made between 1868 and 1900, it is a Grade II listed building. Inside the library is a dodecagonal reading room, inspired by that of the British Museum, and a former medieval chapel, now an exhibition space showcasing the special collections of the library. The library was named in honour of Sir Deryck Maughan, an alumnus of the university.
Top 8. The Wellcome Library
- Total Number of Books: 17,000
- Year of Establishment: 1949
- Address: 183 Euston Rd., London NW1 2BE, UK
- Subscription Fee: Free
- Timings: 10 A.M – 6 P.M
- Famous For: It is one of the best libraries in London, housing more than 700,000 rare medical books, artefacts, and historical photographs.
The Wellcome Library is a free library and Museum based in central London. It was developed from the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome’s interest was the history of medicine in a broad sense and included subjects such as alchemy or witchcraft, but also anthropology and ethnography. Since Henry Wellcome’s death in 1936, the Wellcome Trust has been responsible for maintaining the Library’s collection and funding its acquisitions. The library is free and open to the public.
Top 9. Canada Water Library
- Total Number of Books: 78,000
- Year of Establishment: 2011
- Address: 21 Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 7AR, UK
- Subscription Fee: Free
- Timings: 8 A.M – 8 P.M
- Famous For: The library boasts a futuristic, pyramid design and has set an example in using aluminium cladding.
From across the water, the library resembles a concrete ship that’s run aground. But what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in spirit and ethos: the construction incorporates ground-source heat pumps, solar-heating panels and a sedum green roof along with responsibly sourced timber. And the inside is more than a library but a lifeline for the local community where children can learn to code, older members can seek help with job – hunting and others can enjoy mystery book bags that introduce readers to genres they wouldn’t normally try. With checked carpets, sleek wood interiors and suspended giant orb lights, it’s a wonderful space to while away the day.
Relatively new to the list of the best libraries in London for studying, Canada Water Library has won hearts with modern facilities, community hub, and more. The space houses more than 40,000 books, catering to diverse interests. If you are looking for the best books on focus and concentration or want to learn about the local history, this public library in London has got you covered.
Top 10. Kensington Central Library
- Total Number of Books: 67,000
- Year of Establishment: 1960
- Address: 12 Phillimore Walk, London W8 7RX, UK
- Subscription Fee: Free
- Timings: 9.30 A.M.– 8 P.M.
- Famous For: The library boasts an extensive collection of materials related to the history and culture of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
This public library was the final building designed by English architect E Vincent Harris, who also built the damn fine-looking Manchester Central Library, among many other civic beauties. With nearly 50 years’ worth of experience behind him when the project began in 1958, it’s no surprise his swansong is such a stunner. Its authoritative pillars aren’t the only eye candy to be found here, though. Head outside to the south of the building and you’ll find sculptures of a lion and a unicorn, created by Scottish artist William McMillan.
As one of the best libraries in London, this place is a sanctuary of stories where wisdom of the ages awaits. Traverse through local chronicles of Chelsea and get lost in the leather-bound books! The illustrative biographies of the historical figures create a humble journey for researchers. Being one of the best libraries in London, the maps, archival materials, and photographs feed the interest of any historical enthusiast. Not only does it stand as one of the most beautiful libraries in London, but also for being the first library in the UK to be air-conditioned. Moreover, this beautiful library to work in London offers a “Living Library” program where one can interact with someone from an underrepresented group to question prejudices.
Benefits of Top 10 Best London Libraries
- Access to Knowledge
Libraries are treasure troves of knowledge, housing a vast collection of books, periodicals, reference materials, and more. They serve as repositories of human history, culture, and wisdom.
- Lifelong Learning Opportunities
Libraries are not just places to consume knowledge; they’re also spaces for continuous learning. Many libraries offer workshops, seminars, and educational programs for people of all ages.
- Cultivating a Love of Reading
Libraries play a crucial role in nurturing a love of reading among people of all ages. By offering a wide selection of books and creating inviting reading spaces, libraries become havens for book lovers.
- Community Engagement and Social Connection
Libraries are vibrant community hubs that foster social interaction and engagement. They provide spaces where individuals from all walks of life can come together, share ideas, and connect with others who share similar interests.
- Cost– Effective Resource Access
For many individuals, purchasing books, magazines, or research materials can be financially challenging. Libraries bridge this gap by offering free or low-cost access to a wide range of resources.
Conclusion
Top 10 best London libraries are selected and analyzed comprehensively and detailedly in this blog with benefits, helping you make the best choice of your academic and reading destination. In these top 10 best libraries in London, you can come into contact with many ancient and precious book resources, appreciate the wisdom and talent of the ancients, and experience the charm of reading.
FAQ
London boasts a number of stunning libraries that are architectural marvels in addition to being havens for bookworms. Following are 3 of the most beautiful libraries in London: the British Library, the Senate House Library and the Kensington Central Library.
The biggest library in London is the British Library. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million books from many countries, making it one of the largest libraries in the world.
The oldest public library in London is the Guildhall Library. Its origins can be traced back to around 1425, founded by John Carpenter and John Coventry.
The British Library wins hands down when it comes to rare books. But at the London Library you can take the books out, and practically all of them (over a million volumes, making it the world’s largest independent lending library) are on the open shelves to browse through.
The British Library, London. One of the largest libraries in the world, The British Library(external link, opens in a new tab) is estimated to contain over 13.5 million printed books, with stacks and stacks of them on display.
Top free London libraries in London including: Westminster Reference Library, BFI Mediatheque, British Library, National Art Library, Saint Bride Library.
Members may sign in visitors at the Reception desk if they wish to give them a brief one-off tour of the Library but visitors may not make independent use of the Library. Members who wish to bring visitors to use the Library’s collection may purchase a temporary ticket for one day or one week.
