The best libraries in London (2024)

London's literary history is well-documented – and where better to enjoy it than at one of the capital's best libraries? These 10 bookish buildings are the finest reading rooms in town.

1. Senate House Library

During World War II, Senate House was the site of the Ministry of Information, where George Orwell’s wife Eileen Blair happened to be employed. Orwell used the ministry as inspiration for Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Ministry of Truth, where the protagonist Winston Smith works as an editor. Indeed the library holds a rare first edition of the book among its collection of works and even has a Room 101, used for small exhibitions. Part of the University of London, the library is largely visited by academics and researchers and maintains a distinct air of solemnity, though there is a decadent set of burnished leather armchairs available in the quiet room for time out and perhaps a cat nap or two.

Address: Senate House Library, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Website: london.ac.uk/senate-house-library

2. Bibliothèque Quentin Blake, Institut Français

After a major revamp in 2015, the Children’s Library of the Institut Français reopened as the Bibliothèque Quentin Blake, in homage to the beloved illustrator. Now twice as big – and twice as beautiful – the free-entry French-language library holds titles by all the greats, from René Goscinny and Hergé to Serge Bloch and Dominique de Saint-Mars. Wooden-floored and stacked with colourful, cube-shaped shelves, the space zings with bookish energy. A soft-pink wall hanging, commissioned for the library, shows a mass of children, birds and adults sitting in trees immersed in books, and exudes Blake’s familiar vim and vigour. One glance is all you need to want to gather every book in sight and rush home to devour them all.

Address: Bibiliothèque Quentin Blake, 32 Harrington Road, London SW7 3ES
Website: institut-francais.org.uk

3. The British Library

No list of the best libraries in London would be complete without this institution, and walking into the UK’s national library, it’s hard not to feel studious and productive, even if you’re just there for an espresso and a slab of chocolate cake. A favourite of authors looking for a quiet place to write – and socialise at lunch – it offers reading rooms and has an astounding collection of manuscripts, maps, musical recordings and newspapers dating back to the 1600s. Holding more than 3,000 papyri and 240,000 field recordings, the British Library is a titan of information, not to mention a glorious building.

Address: The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
Website: bl.uk

4. National Poetry Library

Five floors up in the Royal Festival Hall, you’ll find a warm yellow glow radiating from the doors of the National Poetry Library. Opened in 1953 by TS Eliot and Herbert Read, it now houses more than 200,000 works of modern British poetry. This is a cosy space in which emerging poets can seek advice, thumb through battered copies of Larkin, Hughes and Plath, or listen as visiting poets read their work in front of the huge, rainbow-coloured archives. There’s also the Little Library, where children can pore over picture books, play games and solve puzzles.

Address: National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Website: nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk

5. The Wiener Holocaust Library

Housed in a Grade II-listed terrace on leafy Russell Square, the Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world’s leading archives of the period, holding works that pre-date the Holocaust. Founded in 1933 by Dr Alfred Wiener, it has a collection of 1,300 testimonies taken during the Holocaust as well as documents relating to the 1938 November Pogrom. It’s a quiet airy space, with maps of the death marches displayed on the ground level along with original letters written in 1949 by children searching for parents sent to the concentration camps. Up the stairs, visitors are greeted by a touching wall of honour to memorialise a loved one who has inspired them. In addition to an extensive collection of books on refugees, genocide and war criminals, the second floor also holds examples of propaganda, an 18th-century Torah scroll saved from destruction in Prague and private reading desks. An independent charity, the free public library is open four days a week and funded entirely by private donors.

Address: The Wiener Holocaust Library, 29 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DP
Website: wienerholocaustlibrary.org

6. National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum

The future of the National Art Library came into question in 2021 after the director of the V&A announced restructuring plans that would cut staff and restrict access to the collection. Currently one of the world’s top art libraries, it overlooks the John Madejski Garden at the V&A and houses a general collection on ceramics, textiles, art, sculpture and fashion – including hundreds of back editions of Vogue – and a special collection that includes Dickens’s original manuscripts and several corrected proofs such as Bleak House. Majestic and redolent with the smell of dust and worn leather, the library is one to visit as soon as you can.

Address: National Art Library, V&A, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL
Website: vam.ac.uk

7. The Maughan Library, King’s College London

Whether you’re standing on the grass outside looking in, or gazing up from a lamp-lit desk, the 19th-century neo-gothic dome of the Maughan Library is as hypnotic as it is beautiful. The Grade II-listed building was long rumoured to be the site of Dumbledore’s office in the Harry Potter films. The university recently debunked the myth: it was, however, one of the locations referenced by Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code. Stocking theses, journals, exam papers and books on humanities, science and law, the library also features a former medieval chapel now known as the Weston Room, with stained-glass windows and a mosaic floor that echoes with careful footsteps.

Address: The Maughan Library, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR
Website: kcl.ac.uk

8. The London Library

With its polished wooden rails, thick red carpets and sage-looking busts in the corners, this library gives the appearance of being as traditional as they come – but it's not. Just off St James’s Square, the London Library offers members access to more than a million books while also hosting talks, and an emerging writers programme currently into its third year. Amid the special collections are the world’s smallest version of Dante’s The Divine Comedy and a remarkable collection of Martin Luther pamphlets which includes a first edition of his 95 Theses from 1517. However, no visit is complete without the thrill of nosing around the book stacks, housed across 19.23 miles of shelving with little more than iron-grille flooring in between.

Address: The London Library, 14 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LG
Website: londonlibrary.co.uk

9. The Wellcome Library

An extension of the Wellcome Collection, which focuses on health and the human experience, the library is a dream for readers fascinated by the mind, mental health and medicine across the ages. Spread across two floors of shelves painted with limbs and organs, it has books on everything from sperm counts, transitioning and virility to cosmetic surgery in China, the importance of suffering and the history of waxworks. The main gallery isn’t strictly part of the library but it does house many of its books. Past a warning that the gallery contains human remains, the entrance leads you into a warmly lit space with lamps hung on red ropes where solitary readers are concealed in corners and a small wall of handwritten notes asks children to continue each other’s stories. A perfect spot for a rainy day.

Address: The Wellcome Library, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
Website: wellcomecollection.org

10. Canada Water Library

From across the water, the library resembles a concrete ship that’s run aground. But what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in spirit and ethos: the construction incorporates ground-source heat pumps, solar-heating panels and a sedum green roof along with responsibly sourced timber. And the inside is more than a library but a lifeline for the local community where children can learn to code, older members can seek help with job-hunting and others can enjoy mystery book bags that introduce readers to genres they wouldn’t normally try. With checked carpets, sleek wood interiors and suspended giant orb lights, it's a wonderful space to while away the day.

Address: Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Road, London SE16 7AR
Website: southwark.gov.uk