Although our building is closed during lockdown, members can continue to use our free postal loans service and our online services.
Our online collection offers a vast range of material for anyone carrying out research at home. With over a million pages of articles and information from more than 25,000 sources it’s an extensive collection in its own right.
We offer access to eBooks through OverDrive who offer a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction eBooks, and a range of audiobooks.
We also have an excellent postal loans service and we are currently able to post books to members free of charge.
Whether you’re carrying out historic research, working on an academic research project or simply wishing to stay in touch with the literary world, our Library is a goldmine!
Our Online Resources
Academic resources
Through JSTOR you can access a huge digital library of academic journals, books, primary sources and periodicals. London Library membership provides free access to most of JSTOR's content, which subscribed to separately normally costs around £200 per annum.
Members also have access to a vast collection of historic research material through hundreds of publications including The Bibliography of British and Irish History, British History Online, the Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913, the Survey of London and The British Newspaper Archive, plus much more.
Newspaper archives and historic publications
As a London Library member you’ll be able to use the full digital archives of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and The Observer, plus the extensive British Newspaper Archive, the 17th-18th Century Burney Newspapers Collection and more!
This enormous range of archival material is perfect for researching from home - whether you’re working on an academic research project, writing a novel or working on your family history.
Our subscriptions to historic publications - such as the Illustrated London News and the Country Life archive - provide a wealth of information, much of it beautifully illustrated, that is ideal for both work and pleasure.
Literary resources
An extensive collection of literary journals and collections is available if you’re looking to stay in touch with the literary world. London Library membership gives access to titles such as the complete archive of The London Review of Books, New York Review of Books, English Poetry, The Complete Prose of T S Eliot archive, Early English Books Online and many more.
Art
Our online art resources offer a wealth of material for art researchers and art historians. As well as access to all of the art journals available through JSTOR we also provide use of the International Bibliography of Art, Oxford Art Online and more.
Languages
The London Library’s language collection is extensive. Membership gives access to European language newspapers and publications such as Die Zeit/Literatur book reviews and Gallica: The digital library of the national library of France. We also offer Russian literature, language, history and art publications.
Online Research support
Our Member Services team is on hand to help you get the most out of using our online services and to provide enquiry and research services by email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Such help may include:
Helping you identify sources and journal articles in the e-Library relevant to your research or interest
Guidance on how to use the online resources if you have not used them greatly before and would like assistance on how best to approach your research.
Our Book Collection and Postal Loans
Our online resources are complemented by a book collection of extraordinary range and depth. The London Library has over one million books dating from 1700 to the present day, almost all of which can be borrowed.
We have an outstanding postal loans service - you can continue borrowing books by ordering them online and we will then post them to you free of charge. We would normally charge for packing and postage but we have, for now, decided to waive those charges. We have also decided to extend every member’s existing borrowing limit by five books for the duration of the current Library closure, again, free of charge.
Members are able to return books to us either through the letterbox at our St James's Square entrance or by post to 14 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LG.
Find out more about our postal loans service.
eBooks
As the owner of a collection of over one million books, The London Library remains a proud bastion of the printed word. But through our eLibrary we offer a vast amount of material online, we have now made our first foray into the expanding world of eBooks through OverDrive who offer a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction eBooks, and a range of audiobooks.
We have identified a number of titles that are in high demand in the Library and have purchased additional copies as eBooks. We have also purchased some fiction that we see circulating quite highly in the Library, such as books which have won awards of various kinds. Additionally, we have included a set of classics that are being made freely available by Duke Classics during the pandemic.
Members can access our eBook selection either through the OverDrive website, or through an app called Libby which brings together OverDrive content offered by a wide range of libraries. Members are welcome to make recommendations regarding new e-books for the Library to acquire, similar to our book suggestions scheme.
Events
The London Library runs an ecclectic and vibrant events programme and offers free online events.
New Members
If you are not currently a member of The London Library now is an ideal time to join! Our Remote Access membership is perfect for providing you with thousands of reading resources while you’re at home, while joining as a Full Member will mean you are supporting the future of the Library during this difficult time and will be able to use all of our services - including being able to borrow from a collection of over one million books - when we re-open our building.
All of our memberships can be given as gifts.
The London Library Lit Fest is taking place from Thursday 27 April – Sunday 30 April 2023.
Open to everyone, The London Library Lit Fest will bring together leading figures from the literary world for an eclectic, inspiring and thought-provoking long weekend of conversation, performance, art and music exploring themes of collections, collecting and collectives. Events include creative workshops, fascinating panel discussions, and the first ever performance of Sylvia Pankhurst’s formidable long-lost play Between Two Fires.
Events will be held in the Library’s famous Reading Room across the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and all day on Sunday. Events will be livestreamed, opening the Library to all.
The Programme
Thursday
Explore portraits of women writers in an exhibition by South African born, UK-based artist, Susanne du Toit. The exhibition launch, in which this complete series of works is shown for the first time and throughout the festival, is followed by a very special salon with Susanne and some of her illustrious sitters including Juliet Jacques, Dreda Say Mitchell and Sacha Llewellyn and Lara Feigel.
Friday
Don’t miss an electrifying evening of poetry, performance, dance and music to honour TS Eliot's epic poem, The Waste Land and the city it inhabits. Featuring poets Ben Okri, Jay Bernard, Will Harris, Sophie Herxheimer, Daljit Nagra, Richard Scott and Hannah Sullivan, singer songwriter Polly Paulusma and dancer Charlotte Jarvis. An exhibition of sculptures by Jacqueline Nicholls, which grapple with The Waste Land, will be hidden among the Library’s stacks and can also be enjoyed throughout the festival.
Saturday
Discover Between Two Fires, the powerful long-lost play that Sylvia Pankhurst wrote in solitary confinement in HMP Holloway with a contraband pencil. Performed for the first time in a rehearsed reading directed by Roxana Silbert, it will be followed by a panel discussion with Pankhurst’s biographer Rachel Holmes; her granddaughter activist Helen Pankhurst; playwright Sonali Bhattacharyya and London Library archivist Nathalie Belkin. The cast are yet to be announced.
Two inspiring writing workshops will run in partnership with Arvon, the national creative writing charity, across Saturday and Sunday. Artist and poet Sophie Herxheimer will lead a workshop on found and collage poetry using the Library’s collection and novelist Marcel Theroux will lead a workshop on writing politics into fiction. Workshops are in-person only.
Sunday
We kick off Sunday with a showcase of amazing talent from some former participants on our prestigious Emerging Writers Programme. Later in the day we’ll take a fascinating look at anthologies, encyclopaedias and indexes with Simon Garfield, Dennis Duncan, Clare Bucknell and Rishi Dastidar, dissecting the cultural, social and political history of information collation in the Age of Google. Meanwhile, flipping the patriarchy on its head in their most recent books, activist and writer, Yassmin Abdel-Magied brings together Carole Hailey and Ayisha Malik to explore gender, silence and revolution.
And rounding off this year’s Lit Fest, five speakers delve into the Library's idiosyncratic Science and Miscellaneous section to celebrate the Library’s weird and wild heart in a lively event in partnership with 5x15, including poet and playwright Inua Ellams on 'Music', bestselling author Kate Summerscale on 'Fear', award-winning psychotherapist Maxine Mei-Fung Chung on 'Sex' (and desire), film critic Danny Leigh on 'Typewriters' and legendary journalist and biographer Philip Norman on 'Press'.
Please note that the lockers will not be available throughout the festival. Ticketholders are advised to not bring large bags.
The London Library LitFest is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Fondation Jan Michalski.
Support The London Library
The London Library is a registered charity and from its inception, philanthropy has played a central role in helping to keep its doors open. Please consider making a donation today and help us to continue inspiring generations of writers, readers and thinkers.
Today there are a variety of different ways in which your support, whatever its size, can make a real and important difference.
General Donations
If you wish to donate to the core function of the Library you can choose to donate to general funds, which means we can direct your support wherever it is needed most. Donations like these will help ensure the continuous running of the building, and the operation of the Library. Donate here.
The most important contribution towards the core function of the Library comes from the members of our patrons programme; The Founders’ Circle. Learn more about this programme here.
Our Collection
Each year the Library acquires around 6000 new books to add to the collection and the Library's Conservation Team work to keep our existing books in a useable condition.
By supporting us with a donation towards book acquisitions, you can help us improve our collection for current and future generations and ensure that everyone is able to find the books they need to use.
You can also support with a donation towards book conservation. Over the years our books see a lot of wear and tear from usage and there are books in our safes that have become too delicate to handle. A donation towards the care of our collection will allow our Conservation Team to repair damaged books and send rare books away for specialist care, so they can, where possible, be put back into circulation.
Emerging Writers Programme
The Library's Emerging Writers' Programme supports unpublished writers at the start of their careers. Each year a cohort of 40 writers receive one year's free Library membership and a programme of writing masterclasses, networking opportunities and peer support. Find out more about the Emerging Writers Programme here.
The Emerging Writers Programme is entirely funded by donations and sponsorship, please support this programme and help an unpublished writer gain access to the Library and career changing resources.
Supported Membership
In order to make sure the Library is accessible to as many people as possible, the Library offers an assisted membership to those unable to meet the full annual fee. Those who are eligible will normally have membership fees reduced by 30%, or in exceptional cases 60%.
By donating to Supported Memberships, those who may not be able to afford to use the Library's services are provided with the opportunity to join and have access to all the amazing resources of the Library.
Library Fund
The Library Fund is an annual fundraising campaign focused on improving the Library in ways that directly impact its users. Every year, supporters of the Fund make possible one special project to enhance how members and the wider Library community enjoy its buildings or make use of its collections.
In 2018/19 The Library Fund successfully funded the complete replacement of 13 old and damaged windows in the St James's Stacks, helping transform this historic part of the Library and creating wonderful new working spaces. In 2019/20 the Library Fund raised money to refurbish the men's and women's toilets on the Library's red staircase. This project will be completed as soon as is practically possible.
Any new donations to the Library Fund will be put towards future projects to enhance how people use and enjoy the Library.
Find out more about The Library Fund here.
Thanks for coming to see The Time Machine at The London Library. We hope you enjoyed exploring space and time in our labyrinthine building!
Founded in 1841 The London Library is one of the world’s great lending libraries. An extraordinary history, a vast borrowing collection and an outstanding building make this a unique place to think, to write and to be inspired.
From Sarah Waters to Kazuo Ishiguro; Charles Dickens to TS Eliot; Virginia Woolf to Bram Stoker; we’ve been at the heart of literature for over 175 years. We have always been a home for anyone who loves the written word.
Membership offer
We are delighted to offer 25% off membership to anyone that has attended The Time Machine!
Just use code 25TIME at checkout on our website.
We have various types of membership available and with this special offer:
- Full Individual membership costs around £33 a month or £375 by annual Direct Debit;
- 16-27 year olds and partners of existing members pay around £16 a month or £187.50 by annual Direct Debit;
- Associate membership costs around £22 a month or £243.75 by annual Direct Debit;
- Remote membership is around £18 a month or £191.25 by annual Direct Debit.
Find out more about our membership types on our website.
If you are interested in joining you can also book a Prospective Member Tour.
Benefits of membership
Our collection contains over million books and periodicals, dating from 1700 to the present day, almost all of which can be borrowed. Members can browse 17 miles of open access shelves for an unforgettable voyage of literary discovery!
We also provide an extensive range of electronic resources giving members online access, from anywhere in the world, to over 25,000 academic journals and other scholarly resources.
During the show you saw some of our vast labyrinth of books, hidden corners and beautiful working spaces, from elegant reading rooms to atmospheric bookstacks. There is, of course, much more to see and explore, we are a unique literary oasis in the heart of London and our members can make full use of resources.
Newsletter
If you're not ready to join as a member but you'd like to keep up to date with what's going on at the Library and hear about any special offers we are running. Sign up to our newsletter below.
The London Library promises to respect and protect any personal data you share with us. Your information is used to administer your membership, personalise your experience of the Library and communications, and provide you with the goods or services you have requested. If you are over 18 we may, in some instances, analyse your data and obtain further publicly available data to help us make our communications more appropriate and relevant to your interests, and anticipate whether you might want to support us in the future.
You can opt-out of most communications or the ways in which we process your data by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For full details of how we collect, store, use and protect your data, see our Privacy Policy at www.londonlibrary.co.uk/privacypolicy.
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