The London Library

The London Library, founded by Thomas Carlyle in 1841, is the world’s largest independent lending library, with over 1,000,000 books and 8,000 members. Since its inception the Library has evolved into a complex amalgam of spaces that originate from a residential building sited on the north west corner of St James Square. The building has a discrete formal façade that provides a foil for a more aggregative interior. Over the years additional buildings have been annexed to house the ever-growing needs of the Library and its users, including a book stack built in 1922, and an extension to the north built in 1934; the Anstruther Wing housing rare books, was built at the rear of the 1920s book stack in 1995. In 2004, Haworth Tompkins won a competition for the commission to master plan the Library’s £18m redevelopment after the acquisition of Eliot House in Mason’s Yard to the north of the Library, which was instrumental to the redevelopment scheme. Eliot House was refurbished in 2007 as Phase 1, to provide the decanting space needed to begin the main works in Phase 2. The design proposals aim to meet the demands of the Library’s natural growth - half a mile of new shelving every year - by increasing the overall book storage capacity of the building by 30%. The project has evolved from an analysis of the Library, its identity, its capacity and future needs. The main focus of the Library is the Victorian Reading Room, Issue Hall and 1890s book stack, and the whole site retains the feel of the bespoke, containing all the authentic idiosyncrasies of an historic institution. The 21st Century poses fresh challenges, including the provision of more space for the collection, staff and members; the adoption of new technology; the conservation of book stocks; and improvements to the environmental conditions of the existing building. The overall scheme will resolve staff accommodation and bring together departments previously split across the site, relocating activities into more appropriate locations. The recently completed Phase 2 works provide 42 new reader spaces and 1.25km of new shelving, new designated rooms for the Art Book Collection, Times Collection and Periodicals and Societies Collection, improved circulation with new lift and stairs, the remodelling of the main Issue Hall and the creation of a new members entrance from Mason's Yard. By using a discreet modern language, the scheme respects the strengths and character of the existing fabric, successfully fusing this with the contemporary functions and technologies essential to a modern library. Strong existing features are to be retained and set against new interventions. As a unique venture, Haworth Tompkins have collaborated with Turner Prize winning artist Martin Creed, whose bold, site-specific commission creates a unique floor piece in the ancillary spaces and loos. Much of the Phase 2 project has dealt with 'de-silting' and restoring legibility to the Library, making it easier for its users to understand and navigate; the Library suffers from ad-hoc vertical circulation with lift and stair access to some floors compromised, which results in a discontinuous navigational route through the building. A re-engineered lift in the existing shaft provides a larger car and a new staircase from basement to third floor, connecting with an already existing stair core at the upper levels, rationalises the main vertical circulation. A new specially designed signage system throughout the project will assist wayfinding across the site. The central light well area has been opened up to become a new double height glass roofed space with a new Reading Room for the Periodicals Collection at its base and apertures that allow cross views from the Issue Hall to the book stacks and a new Catalogue Hall. Rising through the Issue Hall the light well will act as an orientation device around which readers circulate as they either move upwards, to the main Victorian Reading Room or down to the periodicals collection in the basement. By removing compromising interventions that have built up over time, the Issue Hall and Reading Room will be returned to their former grandeur, re-establishing them as the cultural heart of the Library. Essential front of house facilities have been dramatically improved, and a secondary members’ entrance with wheelchair access direct from Mason’s Yard into the Issue Hall has been introduced. The 1930s Art Room, located between Eliot House and the rest of the Library gains new significance as the central circulatory connection to the new building. The Art Room had been compromised over time through unsympathetic re-modeling and has now been restored with a grand double-height galleried space at its centre. Housing the Art Book Collection, the re-modeled room will connect through to Eliot House and will be opened up as a special book lined space distinct from the typical book stacks, lined with bespoke semi-transparent shelving on two levels. Heating, lighting, and ventilation in many parts of the Library are not optimised for the accommodation of books, and create conditions that are contributing to the deterioration of the collections. Improved local control of temperature, relative humidity, clean air, and light levels has been introduced throughout the refurbished and new stack areas to tackle this and mechanical ventilation has been introduced into the Issue Hall to improve levels of comfort in summer. The successful completion of the Phase 2 works marks the end of the really invasive construction and clears the way for the remaining new additions to be easily built from the outside with minimum future disruption to Library operations.