London Library

London Library stands in St James’s, London, as a literary institution founded in 1841. Its maze-like interior grew from a townhouse into rooms, corridors, and shelves over more than 150 years.

Around one million books and periodicals span the 1700s to the present, with about 17 miles of open-access shelving. Six reading rooms, individual study spaces, and digital resources support writers, researchers, journalists, and academics, while public programmes include talks, readings, workshops, and masterclasses. About 7,500 members form a quiet community where established and emerging writers work side by side.

Among the shelves, you can find early copies of The Spectator beside Victorian folios about East Anglian eels.

City: Greater London
Content updated: 2026-06-22

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Image: Rodolph at English WikipediaPublic domain
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Image: William Francis RobertsPublic domain
Image: GrindtXX CC BY-SA 3.0

Take this page with you

The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Greater London. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.