Family, Youth & Community

West Greenwich Library

The Library of West Greenwich is situated in the center of West Greenwich. This new library, along with a wide variety of books, videos and music for adults and children, provides free wi-fi and internet access for the city.

Library of West Greenwich offers dedicated sections for adolescents and infants, as well as research areas and points of self-discussion. West Greenwich Library also has its own art gallery, which exhibits on a rolling programme the work of local artists. The work of art is accessible to all and individual items are commonly available for purchase.

Attractions, Libraries, archives and foundations

Originally opened in 1907 and refurbished just over a century later, this lovely library is just one of Greenwich's many riches. It has a gallery room (pictured) showcasing local artists' work, as well as the normal computers and books.

The Wellcome Library Reading Room

Museum and library exploring health and human experience

The second floor of the Wellcome Collection, packed with squishy floor cushions and hanging copper lamps, is the most relaxing location in the capital to learn about medical history. The mezzanine library houses scientific treasures, including an Ancient Egyptian medicine and the papers of scientist Francis Crick, free of charge for all who sign up for membership. The Reading Room below, meanwhile, is a wonderland of cosy research rooms and exhibitions in galleries where you can enjoy games and listen to poetry readings.

A pioneering 19th-century pharmacist, Sir Henry Wellcome, amassed a large and idiosyncratic array of medical trading instruments and curiosities, now exhibited here. In addition to these interesting and frequently grisly objects-ivory carvings of pregnant women, guillotine blades used the toothbrush of Napoleon-there are many serious pieces of contemporary art, most of them on display in a smaller space on one side of the main curiosity chamber.

Sometimes the temporary exhibits are brilliant and come with all sorts of relevant experiences, from discussions to hikes. In addition to two modern galleries and the stunning Reading Room, which is a blend of library, gallery and event space, a £ 17.5 million renovation programme opened up even more construction areas to the public.

UCL Main Library

On their way into town, North Londoners would have noticed UCL's very fancy library from the bus window. It is located in the iconic domed main building of the university. The Flaxman Gallery (pictured) makes a beautiful centerpiece of the hushed halls of the library stunning, in fact, that it featured in 'Inception' by Christopher Nolan. Library access is limited to people who really need to use the books, so you'll have to find a scholarly reason to visit and research the stunning galleries.

SOAS Library, SOAS University of London

This amazing concrete beast from the mid-century master Denys Lasdun houses the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Within, pops of bronze-anodised aluminium trim are accompanied by Lasdun's signature brooding grey panels, all of which are lit by a grid of pyramid-shaped ceiling lights. Anyone who believes Brutalism can't be beautiful should automatically pay a visit; all comparison and borrowing memberships can be applied for by the general public.

SOAS is a remarkable organisation. We are ideally positioned to educate and mold current thought about the economic, political, cultural, defense, and religious problems of our planet through our vast repository of information and expertise in our specialised regions. Our programs are taught by renowned scholars interested in fieldwork and research that impacts government policy and people's lives around the world.

Senate House Library

Senate House is the administrative hub of the University of London, located just north of the British Museum in the heart of Bloomsbury, London. Between 1932 and 1937, the Art Deco building was developed as the first stage of a large uncompleted scheme planned by Charles Holden

We are the central library for the University of London (opening in a new window) and the School of Advanced Research at the Senate House in Bloomsbury (Opens in new window). Members have access to beautiful Central London research rooms, excellent arts, humanities and social sciences, special collections, libraries, and multimedia services. Find out all about our collections' analysis capabilities.

Swiss Cottage Central Library

The Swiss Cottage Library is the primary library of the London Borough of Camden Public Library Service and is located in a historic architecture building designed by Sir Basil Spence on Avenue Lane.

You would love the brutal exterior of the Swiss Cottage Library if you are a fan of symmetry, while every feature inside looks like a scene from a Wes Anderson film. It's a dramatic vortex with staircases of mirror-image and curves of the 1960s. On the philosophy and history front the collection is strong, and there is a wide open space where you can settle in comfortable chairs.

Peckham Library

Situated in Peckham in south-east London, Peckham Library is a library and community building. Alsop and Störmer, engineered by AKT II, designed it and received the Stirling Award for Architecture in 2000.

The term 'library' is helpfully written in big letters on its roof if there is any doubt as to what this copper-clad minimalist beauty of a structure is. The alien-like building won the Stirling Award for Design in 2000, the only local library to win so far, and there is a wonderful array of books by black writers between the interior's space-age pods and bulbous wooden desks, the largest collection of African CDs in the borough and a decent selection of graphic novels.

National Art Library 

The National Art Collection, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a London decorative arts museum, is a major research library. It is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday and specialises in fine and decorative arts materials from many countries and times.

Inside the V&A, this beautiful library is tucked away, but after you've been in it, you'll wonder how you never found it. Its collection comprises printed books, paintings, woodwork, textiles, metalwork and many other subjects that are important to the museum in which it is located. It is free to enter as a big public reference library-all you need to do is have proof of address ID. Or you can only peek through the massive double doors through the glass.

The NAL will be closed temporarily for refurbishment. In Spring 2021, we want to see you again. Our web enquiry and copying facilities have resumed in the interim, and to use these services, there is no need to enter. For the latest information on our re-opening date, visit our blog and sign up for the NAL Newsletter.

Maughan Library

The Maughan Library is King's College London's largest university academic library, which forms part of the Strand Campus.

The main academic library of King's College London is a neo-gothic building from the nineteenth century that was home to the Public Record Office until King purchased it in 2001. The magnificent dodecagonal (12-sided) reading room featured in The Da Vinci Code' and receives filming requests on a regular basis, but its daily function is as a real learning area. As such, to use it, you have to be a member, but as part of the Open House, Maughan Library is generally open to the public.

The London Library

The London Library, founded in 1841, is an independent lending library in London. It was developed by Thomas Carlyle, who was unhappy with some of the policies at the Library of the British Museum.

At The London Library, see a list of popular authors who are all members of The London Library. It's the book stacks of Shoreditch House: you pay a subscription fee (about £ 500 a year so you don't have to talk to anyone. And members will loan books for an absurdly long time from its 17 miles of shelves (or until another member requests the same one).

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Since 2014, the Museum of Freemasonry, located at Freemasons' Hall, London, has been a fully accredited museum with a designated outstanding national collection since 2007 and a registered charitable trust since 1996. A museum, library, and archives are part of the facility.

The headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the principal meeting place for Masonic Lodges in London are the Freemasons' Hall, the eye-catching bombastic stone building where Long Acre becomes Great Queen Lane. There is a library and museum in addition to the Grand Temple, which contains a selection of Masonic material, and everyone is welcome to visit, from historians to conspiracy theorists.

Kensington Central Library

Kensington Central Library, on Hornton Street and Phillimore Walk, Kensington, London, is a Grade II* listed building. It was designed by the architect E. in 1958–60. Vincent Harris on the site of The Abbey, a Gothic house built in 1880 for Mr. Abbot and destroyed in 1944 by bombing.

Kensington Central Library library was the final building planned, among many other civic beauties, by the English architect E Vincent Harris, who also constructed the fine-looking Manchester Central Library. When Kensington Central Library project started in 1958, with almost 50 years of experience behind him, it is not shocking that he put up that spacious floor plan and those bold, authoritative pillars.

Canada Water Library

Opened in 2011, this modern-but-pretty Canada Water Library public library now welcomes an average of 37,000 visitors per month. The venue offers live music, theater, author activities and writing groups in its culture room, as well as reading content.

Bethnal Green Library

You may think you've come across an out-of-place stately home in the middle of east London at the busy intersection outside Bethnal Green Tube. You didn't. Currently, you're looking at the majestic buildings of the Bethnal Green Library, which opened its doors in 1922 for the first time. Today, it has a fully stocked treasure library for both adults and children, as well as two rooms for hire for up to 100 people each.