Tickets Alert: Tours of the London Library

Good news for book lovers and those who love visiting otherwise unvisitable buildings as the venerable London Library is restarting its occasional building tours.

(c) London Library

The London Library is a private lending library founded in 1841 by (amongst others) Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Library, particuarly the inability to borrow books to take home.

Today, it’s a hidden (litterally) corner of central London as the entrance sits in the corner of St James’s Square, where all you’ll see is a small door that opens into a vast warehouse of books behind.

Apart from the bits of finery in some of the reading rooms, the miles of maze-like bookshelves are a delight to see. The perforated steel floors let you peer down between the cracks to a good seven floors of books.

As I noted on a previous visit, it’s not a building to visit for the building itself — it’s a place to visit to experience the amazing atmosphere of a literary gem in the heart of London.

The tours are now taking place monthly on Monday evenings and cost £11 per person.

You’re recomended to arrive by 5:45pm for the tour which will finish around 7pm.

Tickets are currently available for:

Monday 14th October

Monday 18th November

Monday 16th December

Other events at the London Library are here.