(I'm posting a little more slowly this week, as I'm currently on holiday - but will be back at the weekend.)
People often imagine that each of London’s private members’ clubs must be bursting with vast libraries. Yet this is far from always being the case. Many have closed down due to underuse, or else have been converted by cash-conscious management into conferencing rooms. And many clubs never had a library in the first place. This post offers a visual guide to those which survive.
Origins
It is worth noting that none of the 18th century London clubs originally had libraries. These were raucous, sociable gambling clubs; and the idea of quiet, contemplative study in the clubhouse was quite alien to them at the time.
The notion of a club library - which will be traced more fully in a standalone piece - emerged from the Liverpool Athenæum founded in 1797, and the “athenæum movement” it prompted from the 1800s to 1830s, of literary clubs on both sides of the Atlantic, each centred around a library run along club principles, with the book collection at the heart of the clubhouse. This would reach its apotheosis with the creation of the London Library in 1841.
Some of the older clubs subsequently added a library - like Brooks’s, whose library lay in its 1857 annexe. Others maintain only a token library, or still refuse to add one. And others maintained distinctly modest ambitions in that direction - when the Junior United Service Club was set up in the 1820s, the full scope of their idea of a library was buying the 26 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Current trends
Not unheard of in London Clubland today (if there even is a library) is something like the “Library Bar” of Soho House's 76 Dean Street, seen below. Note the complete absence of any books. Generally speaking, fewer than half of the historic clubs of London still maintain a working library, and none of the modern ones have one.
And where clubs have had historic libraries, the financial pressure has been to either make them “dual-use”, revenue-generating rooms available for private hire - or to replace them entirely. As an example of this in recent years, the Carlton Club disposed of its historic library, replacing it with the below function room, the Wine Room - though in a concession to its former use, there is still a small bookcase kept in one corner of the room (seen on the left).
Clubland libraries today
Fortunately, many Clubland libraries do survive in London today, in a variety of shapes and sizes. Running through them alphabetically...the Alpine Club near Old Street has a comprehensive library around mountaineering.
The Army & Navy Club on Pall Mall maintains a military history library, as you might expect.
The Athenæum has the most extensive library in London Clubland today. This is its principal room, the South Library; but a working library runs through much of the building, with books on open shelves across five rooms and assorted corridors.
Brooks’s maintains a capacious library, not in the original Georgian part of the building, but in an adjoining Victorian annexe. It is also used to display the portraits of members of the Society of Dilettanti, which merged into the Club.
The Caledonian Club’s library is, as you might expect, particularly strong on Scottish history.
The East India Club has a library that is particularly well-stocked on imperial and military history.
The Garrick Club, the wealthiest in London, has an extremely well-endowed library focused around the performing arts.
The Magic Circle, the club for practising magicians, has over 6,000 books on the history and practice of magic, plus a DVD and audio library of magic performances.
While the National Liberal Club lost its original library in the 1970s, it reestablished a new one over a decade ago, heavily focused around Liberal history, philosophy & biography. (I was responsible for its reintroduction, when I was a member there, during a 10-year stint as its Librarian.)
The Naval & Military (“In & Out”) Club St. James's Square maintains a well-stocked military history library.
The Oriental Club's library in Stratford House is particularly opulent and decorative.
One of the more extensive libraries is that of the Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall, which is divided across three principal rooms, including a quiet room; plus further rooms for reading periodicals.
The Reform Club probably has the second-largest library in Clubland. Like the Athenæum, it is not limited to the principal library room, seen here - much of the building is a scrupulously maintained, working library.
The Royal Air Force Club on Piccadilly maintains a library, which doubles as a bar and function room.
The Royal Automobile Club, unsurprisingly, has a reference library heavily focused on cars and the history of automobiling.
Given its strong literary roots, many of the library books in the Savile Club have been authored by its own members.
The Travellers Club library - focused on travel - is one of the architectural gems of Clubland, designed by Charles Barry (who also designed the Reform Club next door), with its classical frieze. It is also probaly one of the most photographed rooms in Clubland. There is a further overflow specialist travel library, located in the basement of the Club.
The Union Jack Club is a mass-membership services and veterans’ club in Waterloo, open to enlisted ranks, and it also maintains a library.
Finally, there is the gorgeous library of the University Women's Club in Mayfair - a popular location for film shoots.
As noted, the surviving club libraries come in all shapes and sizes. Some are highly specialist, some are rather more generalist. And they are not limited to hard copy books, either: several of them include a digital component, to periodicals and databases with online subscriptions. Libraries are evolving, and the cost of hiring skilled, professional librarians remains high - but those clubs which do have libraries are often able to offer their members an increasingly rare amenity, at a time when public libraries are underfunded and often closing down.
(This piece was adapted from an old Twitter thread I wrote on the topic a year ago.)
All photographs, unless otherwise mentioned, are from the clubs’ websites.
You can view the full and varied backlog of Clubland Substack articles, by clicking on the index below.
Index
Articles are centred around several distinct strands, so the below contains links to the main pieces, sorted by theme.
Okay. So happy to find this. May I share photos of my club’s library?