The Central London Library Review

Feel free to request other libraries, it would be my pleasure to expand this review.

British Library

• Collection: 10/10
• Ambience: 2/10
• Comfort: 7/10
• Refreshments: 6/10
• Helpfulness: 3/10
• Events: 8/10
• Location: 10/10
• Notes: kept at a good temperature, nice and warm

London Library

• Collection: 8/10 – v much depends on your topic. 10/10 for foreign language books, 10/10 for periodicals, not aimed at academic study so doesn’t have everything I ask for but broadly has most things, and plenty of other cool shit
• Ambience: 10/10
• Comfort: 7/10
• Refreshments: 9/10
• Helpfulness: 10/10
• Events: 8/10
• Location: 10/10
• Notes: often cold / breezy, you get tour groups who come and talk loudly outside, full of foibles, can’t wear heels in the back stacks, current recruitment drive means too many young people (get off my lawn!!), great for celebrity spotting if you’re into certain kinds of celebrity (could you recognise Tom Stoppard or BBC producers at a mile?), great if you ARE a celebrity (Tom Hanks literally got a private tour during opening hours and nobody batted an eyelid). Do not join, go away, leave us in peace.

Society of Friends Library

• Collection: 2/10 – v specific to history of Quakerism, but obviously the place for that.
• Ambience: 6/10
• Comfort: 5/10
• Refreshments: 8/10
• Helpfulness: 6/10 – they can help you navigate the library and are incredibly friendly, but also have a very specific knowledge
• Events: 2/10
• Location: 10/10
• Notes: a real hidden gem, nice quiet place to work in the vicinity of basically every university, they let you handle even the really old handwritten books with no qualification

Chinatown Library (aka Charing Cross Library)

• Collection: 4/10 – has CDs and DVDs as well as books, but nothing beyond the scope of an ordinary Waterstone’s. 8/10 if you read Chinese, though.
• Ambience: 4/10 cute building, generally a bit reminiscent of other public sector libraries, which is still cute it’s just a different aesthetic
• Comfort: 4/10
• Refreshments: 3/10
• Helpfulness: 7/10
• Events: 3/10 (potentially unless you speak Chinese, as it does cater to London’s Chinese community)
• Location: 8/10
• Notes: is a public library run by Westminster Council

Senate House Library

• Collection: 9/10
• Ambience: 9/10
• Comfort: 7/10
• Refreshments: 2/10
• Helpfulness: 7/10
• Events: 5/10 – higher if you think a small exhibition is an event (I don’t)
• Location: 10/10
• Notes: bonus classics library underneath, often closed for film shoots (get off my lawn!!), impossible to book a long-term study carrell or I’d be a member here instead, the only place I’ve ever paid with an 80s credit card carbon

Wellcome Library

• Collection: 2/10
• Ambience: 10/10
• Comfort: 9/10
• Refreshments: 3/10
• Helpfulness: 1/10 but only because I don’t think they have librarians
• Events: 1/10
• Location: 9/10
• Notes: I find the Wellcome Collection ghoulish and not enjoyable to walk through, but the library itself is a delight

KCL Library (aka Maugham Library)

• Collection: 4/10, famously hard to navigate
• Ambience: 9/10
• Comfort: 3/10
• Refreshments: 3/10
• Helpfulness: 6/10
• Events: 1/10
• Location: 8/10
• Notes: one to visit for the aesthetic rather than use regularly

National Art Library

• Collection: 4/10 for the shelves, 10/10 for the stacks but the stacks require connections and access
• Ambience: 5/10
• Comfort: 6/10
• Refreshments: 6/10
• Helpfulness: 3/10
• Events: 8/10
• Location: 2/10, who wants to schlep to Kensington??
• Notes: generally locked, I think access is by appointment only

BFI Reuben Library

• Collection: 7/10 surprisingly diverse and extensive for such a small space
• Ambience: 7/10 if you like modernism, 2/10 for dark academia
• Comfort: 6/10
• Refreshments: 2/10 unless you want cocktails, then 9/10
• Helpfulness: 9/10 incredibly passionate and nerdy staff
• Events: 10/10 is literally in the BFI, every day is an event I want to go to here
• Location: 8/10

RHS Lindley Library

• Collection: 4/10 – only literature pertaining to plants
• Ambience: 9/10
• Comfort: 6/10 cold
• Refreshments: 1/10
• Helpfulness: 9/10
• Events: 1/10
• Location: 3/10

National Poetry Library

• Collection: 10/10 but very specific
• Ambience: 5/10, very public sector vibes
• Comfort: 3/10
• Refreshments: 5/10
• Helpfulness: 7/10
• Events: 8/10
• Location: 9/10

German Historical Institute in London Library

• Collection: 6/10
• Ambience: 6/10, higher if the furniture were darker wood
• Comfort: 7/10
• Refreshments: 3/10
• Helpfulness: 3/10
• Events: 5/10
• Location: 9/10

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On This Topic:

• Bliss is the best publically accessible library classification I’ve come across (they use it at SHL), though my personal preference is for a modified LOC system where you choose your own headings.
• Just an excuse for library porn
• Perhaps another library for me to visit?

To-Do:

• Finish and return my own library books (perhaps reading fiction was ambitious right now…)
• Order groceries
• Book for Christmas parties: office and PGR

Today’s Culture:

• Piss off or amuse your family (depending on the vibe) with my inappropriate Christmas playlist, aka wierdly sexy or depressing Christmas songs. Or go for my pop Christmas playlist – now with significantly less Dolly Parton, at the request (begging) of my family
• I’m actually looking forward to watching Baz Luhrmann reclaim his greatest flop. As one of my favourite directors, I’ll be interested to see where he takes Australia with the benefit of hindsight, and my original criticism of the film suits it becoming a series…
• Feeling old, apparently it’s not just me. I have this theory about Covid being a hard generational line, like the Vietnam War draft or experiencing rationing.