Over the summer, there will be a number of works ongoing in the Issue Hall, Stairs and Reading Room.

While we will keep disruption to a minimum, and ensure that entrances, exits, and all services remain open, members may experience some disruption and the main Reading Room will be closed for a number of days.

All changes are detailed below, followed by the dates when members may experience disruptions.

Self-issue kiosks

The Library will be installing two self-issue kiosks as an option for members to loan and return books. This follows the Library’s introduction of RFID security for the safety of our book collection.

Staff will be on hand to help members use the kiosks for the collection, issue and return of books. There will still be staff at the issue desk for those who would rather have their books issued and returned there. 

We hope that this change will improve member service in two ways: it will ease the process for members who wish to issue/return books quickly, and it will provide Issue Hall staff more time to assist members with detailed collections requests and queries without causing queues.

Members will have noticed our RFID barriers at the doors. These will sound an alarm if a book has not been issued. Should this happen please return to the issue desk and ask a member of staff for help.

Keyless lockers

Recently, the Library introduced a new keyless locker system. Members can now use their membership card to access a locker, meaning that members no longer have to queue at Reception for a key, and Reception staff are freed up to deal with more detailed member queries.

Please remember to bring your membership card each time you visit the Library. If you have lost your card, please inform Reception so we can issue a new one.

The lockers automatically unlock at night. Please remove all items from your locker when you leave the Library. Any forgotten items will be held at Reception.

Improvement work in the Issue Hall, Stairs and Reading Room

To make room for the kiosks and returns trolleys, we are removing the old enquiries desk that has not been in use for the last few years. We are aware that members often use the surface to manage bags and move their items into the lockers. To accommodate this, the desk will be replaced with a table.

As the installation of the self-issue kiosks and removal of the old enquiries desk necessitates work and new flooring in the Issue Hall, we are taking the opportunity to replace carpets across several areas in the Library. As members who visit the building will know, the red carpet in the Issue Hall, main staircase and Reading Room is worn and stained.

The new green carpet was chosen from a limited selection due to the need for practical carpet tile. It was chosen by the Library’s interior designers to ensure it is in fitting with the building's look and feel.

Initially, the carpet will be laid in the Issue Hall and the old carpet on the main staircase will be trimmed while we take the opportunity to polish the wood.

The chemicals used for this process may cause a strong smell. We will install fans and open windows over the week to keep this to a minimum.

While the Issue Hall carpet is laid, one of the Library’s two entrances will need to be temporarily closed. 

Once complete, the carpet in the Reading Room will be replaced. During this time, we will also undertake some electrical work to improve power access for members in the Reading Room and remove the extension leads. This will necessitate the closure of the Reading Room for around two weeks. This will be done at a time when the Library is at its quietest in order to minimise disruption.

There are around 130 other spaces to use in the Library including The Study, The Writers’ Room, the Art Reading Room, or one of the many desks dotted around the Library.

Finally, we will be installing two digital signage boards; one in the Issue Hall and one outside The Study. These will enable us to communicate important messages to members to members more effectively than the current paper signage.

Key dates

There may be some disruption on the following dates. The Library will remain open with all services available.

Thursday 10th October – Maintenance work to the roof in The Foyle Lightwell Reading Room, the works being carried out will be visible from the Reading Room on this day. 

October – New carpet laid on the staircase 

Our Library community includes several Member groups that come together to share, inspire and connect with other likeminded people.

This month, our Non-Fiction Member Group worked with Library staff to curate a special collection for our display cabinet: a gathering of books on travel writing.

Group coordinator, Julian, said: "Members of the non-fiction writers group have been reflecting on how books can enable us to travel the world without leaving our armchair or desk. The latest display outside The Study includes the diaries found by Captain Scott's body after his doomed expedition to the South Pole; a fascinating guide to touring in the Soviet Union in the 1930s; an examination of how Europe is seen by its Black citizens; and two intrepid woman travellers."

The travel writing display will be available to view until end of May.

Find out more about how to become a London Library member and join our fantastic community

Discover our Member Groups

Thank you for joining us at the Lit Fest!

Tickets for the Lit Fest are no longer available.

The London Library is pleased to announce the return of its literary festival, The London Library Lit Fest 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.

Find out more and book now!

London Library Director Philip Marshall commented, “The Library aims to inspire, support and promote reading and writing. We are excited to once again open the Library to all through the London Library Lit Fest 2023. We look forward to welcoming audiences, in-person and online, for an enjoyable and insightful weekend of conversation, performance, art and music from a host of talented and creative people.”

The London Library LitFest is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Fondation Jan Michalski.