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 River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

, 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.Poetry Library official site
/ref>"Welcome back, Poetry Library" 5 July 2007, ''Guardian''
/ref>Valencia, Miriam, "The Poetry Library"
'' NATE Classroom'' Spring 2008 Volume/issue: No. 4 The library provides support for schools nationally and locally. The venue has an exhibition and event space.

History and future plans

The library was established in 1953 on the recommendation of the Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain, with the remit of promoting modern and contemporary poetry. Opened by poets TS Eliot and Herbert Read, the library quickly grew beyond the capacity of premises and then the next, moving from

Albemarle Street Albemarle Street is a street in Mayfair in central London, off Piccadilly. It has historic associations with Lord Byron, whose publisher John Murray was based here, and Oscar Wilde, a member of the Albemarle Club, where an insult he recei ...

to Piccadilly, to

Long Acre Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and la ...

in Covent Garden and then to a larger space back in Piccadilly. It has been located at the Royal Festival Hall since 1988, when

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

opened the new venue. With the relocation, the library was given the Signal Poetry Collection of children's poetry books which had been held by Book House. This formed the basis for the library's body of works for children and young adults, available for loan and reference. The beech furniture was designed for the site by

Terrance Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran ...

. The library was closed from 2005 to 2007 during refurbishment of the Festival Hall building. Its re-opening was celebrated with London's first festival of literature. Commentators on BBC's Radio 4 have described it as one of the world's greatest libraries."Southbank to Host London's First Festival of Literature", ''London Evening Standard'' 17 May 2007 Many poets and editors have developed their collections and anthologies at the Poetry Library, including

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

. He worked on the ''Rattle Bag'' anthology at the library during the 1970s, writing of the experience:

Very strange experience, squeezing every morning into modern poetry, and sitting in there all day all curled up with book clamped over mouth inhaling deeply, then coming out in the five or six o clock dark. Many other poets find their inspiration in the library. It's truly a place where poets and readers meet. As well as poets laureate, though, we see school students, families with young children, casual readers, critics, academics, teachers and artists 'squeezing every morning into modern poetry.Valencia, Miriam, "Poetry at Southbank Centre"
'' NATE Classroom'', Spring 2011 Volume/issue: No. 13

Poet

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, ''The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, ''Jill'' (1946) and ''A Girl in Winter'' (1947 ...

was a vocal supporter. He wrote "The Poetry Library is one of the occasional pure flowerings of the imagination for which the English are so seldom given credit". Poet Laureate Andrew Motion echoes Larkin's sentiments: "The most extraordinary thing, is the fact that it exists at all. As Larkin said, it's the kind of thing that you don't expect England to do. It flies in the face of the way we generally run things, ie neglect things. I used it a lot when I was doing the ''Here to Eternity'' anthology. The stock is extremely good and very catholic – and the ancillary services, such as quote-checking, are wonderful." "Live poets society"
''The Independent'' 10 May 2003
''Independent'', 6 March 2013

References

External links

The Poetry Library
website
Poetry Magazines
hosted by The Poetry Library

''The Independent'' 10 May 2003
Global Poetry System
at the Southbank. GPS {{Authority control Southbank Centre Arts centres in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lambeth Libraries in the London Borough of Lambeth 1953 establishments in England National libraries