The Guildhall Library is a public
reference library in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England, specialising in subjects relevant to London and its history. It is administered by the
Corporation of London, the government of the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, which is the historical heart of London. The collection has its greatest depth on topics specifically concerned with the City, but also contains much material on other parts of metropolitan London.
History
Fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
There have been several incarnations of Guildhall Library. The first library at
Guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...
was founded around 1425, when a "new house or library" was instigated by John Carpenter (Town Clerk) and John Coventry under the terms of the will of "the rich and pious merchant"
Richard Whittington. This "fayre and large librarye", as
John Stow called it, began in a building on the south side of
Guildhall Chapel. There is no surviving catalogue of the contents of this collection, but it seems to have been a library for students of the divine scriptures and so it is logical to conclude that it was a library of theological books (as most libraries were at that time, before the development of printing). This library was described by contemporaries as the ''Libararia communis'' (the common library) at Guildhall.
The library is recorded in Stow's ''Survey of London'' (1598). Stow describes a "fair and large library, furnished with books, pertaining to the Guildhall and college". He reports that during the reign of
Edward VI
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...
(around 1549) the whole collection was "sent for" by the
Lord Protector
Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') is a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometime ...
, the
Duke of Somerset. The books were loaded on to carts and taken away but were not returned. It is probable that the Duke "borrowed" the books to furnish
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...
, his new palace on the
Strand. It seems other collections were "borrowed" from elsewhere for the same purpose. By 1550 the building had been let to Sir John Aylif, surgeon to
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
, as a market house for the sale of clothes which also suggests that the first library had come to an end by this time.
Only one book from the original collection has since returned to Guildhall Library: a thirteenth-century copy of
Petrus Riga's ''Aurora'', a metrical Latin version of the Bible, purchased from an antiquarian dealer. The Corporation does not appear to have attempted to recover the library from Somerset, and there was a gap of around 300 years before another library was formed.
Nineteenth century
It was not until 1824 that the Corporation of London appointed a committee to "inquire into the best method of arranging and carrying into effect in the Guildhall, a Library of all matters relating to this City, the Borough of Southwark, and the County of Middlesex". It was funded by the corporation out of the Privy Purse and not from the ratepayers (the library did not become rate-supported until 1921). The committee collected a number of valuable books and in 1828 the library was opened for use initially only by members of the corporation. There were only 1700 volumes in the library at this time but as the library grew so did its membership, tickets being granted to literary men as well as members.
The small library formed by the Corporation in 1824–1828 increased in size and importance. The core collection still focused upon London history and books which illustrated London's growth and development; but it also covered topographical studies and more general library volumes such as dictionaries and glossaries.
The library eventually outgrew its accommodation, and a new building was planned to the East of Guildhall and into Basinghall Street. The Corporation and Common Council decided that from now on access to its books and library treasures should be made available to the public free of charge.
The new library building was designed by
Horace Jones (the City architect); it was built between 1868 and 1872 and opened to the general public in 1873. A substantial stone structure, it adopted the Perpendicular Gothic in style in order to complement the neighbouring Guildhall building. By then the library contained about 60,000 volumes of works covering the history of London, its architecture, topography, its suburbs and a large collection of early printed plays connected with the city. The Library still has a collection of plays from the 19th century, acquired through the Chapman bequest. It is this building which is now called "The Old Library", and the office of the Guildhall Librarian is now the Chief Commoner's parlour.
Some older printed items have classifications like "Bay A" and "Bay H": this indicates the bay and shelf on which the books were kept in the old library building.
Until the
Public Libraries Act 1892 (
55 & 56 Vict. c. 53), which allowed local authorities to set up public libraries, the only other municipal reference library of any size was
Westminster Reference Library. In the years following the act, Guildhall became unusual in being a "reference only" library and began to extend its collections.
Twentieth century
In 1926 the
London Classification system was devised for Guildhall Library, and it remains in use for the London Collection. The same classifications are used at
Barbican Library, for their London Collection, which is for loan.
Around 25,000 volumes were lost in the Second World War, on 29–30 December 1940, through the destruction of some of the Library's store rooms; but the damage to the library building itself was not extensive. After the war the library acquired extra stack space in the Guildhall crypt.
As part of the post-war Guildhall reconstruction scheme, the architects
Sir Giles Scott, Son and Partners were asked to design a new library. The present Guildhall Library, in the West Wing of Guildhall, opened on 21 October 1974. It took 7 weeks to wheel many trolley loads of books to a new home (legally on this occasion). It was a very modern library for its time; a ''
Country Life'' article suggested that with its card indexes and easily accessible shelves it could well be the most efficient machine for the retrieval of information in the world – but they had to keep the old pneumatic tube system in as nothing could beat it!
In 2009–2010 the Prints and Maps and Manuscripts sections moved to
London Metropolitan Archives, although some major manuscript collections are still housed at Guildhall. Until 2023, Guildhall Library shared a building with the City Business Library, so users could move very readily between current and historical business resources. (The City Business Library, once called the Commercial Reference Room, had returned to its original home: first housed at Guildhall Library, it moved to
Basinghall Street in 1970 and later to Brewers' Hall Garden. The City Business Library, now the Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre, moved back to Basinghall Street in February 2023.)
Services
The current Guildhall Library is a major public reference library, holding a wide range of important works and sources including: a comprehensive collection of printed books on the City of London and its history, the Lloyds Marine Collection, a large collection of pamphlets from the 17th–19th centuries covering political and social issues, a complete run of the ''
London Gazette
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...
'' from 1665 to the present, extensive parliamentary resources including 18th-century poll books and a complete set of
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
papers from 1740, broadsides and an unrivalled collection of local and trade directories from 1677 to the present. Other significant collections include English local history, family history, business history, food and wine, historic books on gardening, archery, 17th and 18th century music, early travel and exploration, Sir
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...
,
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764� ...
,
John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English Radicalism (historical), radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlese ...
,
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
, clock making and clock makers. In addition, five archive collections are held at Guildhall Library: those of the
livery companies, the
Stock Exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...
,
Christ's Hospital,
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
and material associated with the
Lloyd's Marine Collection.
Holdings
;Books
There are specialist book collections on the following subjects:
*London and its history
*Local history
*Family history
*English law
*Parliamentary material
*Wine and food
*Clocks and clockmakers (incorporating also the libraries of the
Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a Royal Charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The ...
and of the Antiquarian Horological Society)
*Business history
*Marine history
*Several smaller collections
The local history collections are not restricted to London but cover the whole of the British Isles. In addition to complete sets of the
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...
of England volumes and the
Pevsner Architectural Guides
The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pu ...
, the library holds a collection of county, town and village histories, and also holds journals and other publications of many local history and archaeological societies. The combination of the libraries of the Antiquarian Horological Society, the
Clockmakers' Company and the Corporation's own holdings means the Guildhall offers a horological reference collection of international standing.
References
Further reading
*''
Thomas James Wise and Guildhall Library'' (London, 1970)
*Harvey, Richard. ''A Guide to Genealogical Sources in Guildhall Library'' (3rd ed., London, 1988)
*Jones, Philip E. & Smith, Raymond. ''A Guide to the Records in the Corporation of London Records Office and the Guildhall Library Muniment Room'' (English Universities Press, 1951)
*Welch, Charles. ''The Guildhall Library and its Work'' (London, 1893)
*''A Catalogue of the Library of the Corporation of the City of London: Instituted in the Year 1824'' (London, 1840; 1859; 1889 etc.)
*''A Classified Catalogue of the Circulating Portion of the Library of the Corporation of London'' (London, 1863)
*''A List of Books Printed in the British Isles and of English Books Printed Abroad Before 1701 in Guildhall Library'' (2 vols., London, 1967)
*''Catalogue of the Lending Department of the Library of the Corporation of the City of London'' (2nd ed., London, 1911)
External links
Guildhall Library websiteCity of London Libraries Catalogue
{{Authority control
Libraries in the City of London
Public libraries in London
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...