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The Guildhall Library is a public reference library in London, England, specialising in subjects relevant to London and its history. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London. The collection has its greatest depth on topics specifically concerned with the City, but also contains much material on other parts of metropolitan London.
There have been several incarnations of Guildhall Library. The first library at Guildhall was founded around 1425, when a "new house or library" was instigated by John Carpenter (Town Clerk) and John Coventry under the terms of the will of "the rich and pious merchant" Richard Whittington. This "fayre and large librarye", as John Stow called it, began in a building on the south side of Guildhall Chapel. There is no surviving catalogue of the contents of this collection, but it seems to have been a library for students of the divine scriptures and so it is logical to conclude that it was a library of theological books (as most libraries were at that time, before the development of printing). This library was described by contemporaries as the Libararia communis (the common library) at Guildhall.
The library is recorded in Stow's Survey of London (1598). Stow describes a "fair and large library, furnished with books, pertaining to the Guildhall and college". He reports that during the reign of Edward VI (around 1549) the whole collection was "sent for" by the Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset. The books were loaded on to carts and taken away but were not returned. It is probable that the Duke "borrowed" the books to furnish Somerset House, his new palace on the Strand. It seems other collections were "borrowed" from elsewhere for the same purpose.[ citation needed ] By 1550 the building had been let to Sir John Aylif, surgeon to Henry VIII, as a market house for the sale of clothes which also suggests that the first library had come to an end by this time.
Only one book from the original collection has since returned to Guildhall Library: a thirteenth-century copy of Petrus Riga's Aurora, a metrical Latin version of the Bible, purchased from an antiquarian dealer. [1] The Corporation does not appear to have attempted to recover the library from Somerset, and there was a gap of around 300 years before another library was formed.
It was not until 1824 that the Corporation of London appointed a committee to "inquire into the best method of arranging and carrying into effect in the Guildhall, a Library of all matters relating to this City, the Borough of Southwark, and the County of Middlesex". It was funded by the corporation out of the Privy Purse and not from the ratepayers (the library did not become rate-supported until 1921). The committee collected a number of valuable books and in 1828 the library was opened for use initially only by members of the corporation. There were only 1700 volumes in the library at this time but as the library grew so did its membership, tickets being granted to literary men as well as members.
The small library formed by the Corporation in 1824–1828 increased in size and importance. The core collection still focused upon London history and books which illustrated London's growth and development; but it also covered topographical studies and more general library volumes such as dictionaries and glossaries.
The library eventually outgrew its accommodation, and a new building was planned to the East of Guildhall and into Basinghall Street. The Corporation and Common Council decided that from now on access to its books and library treasures should be made available to the public free of charge.
The new library building was designed by Horace Jones (the City architect); it was built between 1868 and 1872 and opened to the general public in 1873. A substantial stone structure, it adopted the Perpendicular Gothic in style in order to complement the neighbouring Guildhall building. By then the library contained about 60,000 volumes of works covering the history of London, its architecture, topography, its suburbs and a large collection of early printed plays connected with the city. The Library still has a collection of plays from the 19th century, acquired through the Chapman bequest. It is this building which is now called "The Old Library", and the office of the Guildhall Librarian is now the Chief Commoner's parlour.
Some older printed items have classifications like "Bay A" and "Bay H": this indicates the bay and shelf on which the books were kept in the old library building.
Until the Public Libraries Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c. 53), which allowed local authorities to set up public libraries, the only other municipal reference library of any size was Westminster Reference Library. In the years following the act, Guildhall became unusual in being a "reference only" library and began to extend its collections.
In 1926 the London Classification system was devised for Guildhall Library, and it remains in use for the London Collection. The same classifications are used at Barbican Library, for their London Collection, which is for loan.
Around 25,000 volumes were lost in the Second World War, on 29–30 December 1940, through the destruction of some of the Library's store rooms; but the damage to the library building itself was not extensive. After the war the library acquired extra stack space in the Guildhall crypt.
As part of the post-war Guildhall reconstruction scheme, the architects Sir Giles Scott, Son and Partners were asked to design a new library. The present Guildhall Library, in the West Wing of Guildhall, opened on 21 October 1974. It took 7 weeks to wheel many trolley loads of books to a new home (legally on this occasion). It was a very modern library for its time; a Country Life article suggested that with its card indexes and easily accessible shelves it could well be the most efficient machine for the retrieval of information in the world – but they had to keep the old pneumatic tube system in as nothing could beat it![ citation needed ]
In 2009–2010 the Prints and Maps and Manuscripts sections moved to London Metropolitan Archives, although some major manuscript collections are still housed at Guildhall. Until 2023, Guildhall Library shared a building with the City Business Library, so users could move very readily between current and historical business resources. (The City Business Library, once called the Commercial Reference Room, had returned to its original home: first housed at Guildhall Library, it moved to Basinghall Street in 1970 and later to Brewers' Hall Garden. The City Business Library, now the Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre, moved back to Basinghall Street in February 2023.) [2]
The current Guildhall Library is a major public reference library, holding a wide range of important works and sources including: a comprehensive collection of printed books on the City of London and its history, the Lloyds Marine Collection, a large collection of pamphlets from the 17th–19th centuries covering political and social issues, a complete run of the London Gazette from 1665 to the present, extensive parliamentary resources including 18th-century poll books and a complete set of House of Commons papers from 1740, broadsides and an unrivalled collection of local and trade directories from 1677 to the present. Other significant collections include English local history, family history, business history, food and wine, historic books on gardening, archery, 17th and 18th century music, early travel and exploration, Sir Thomas More, Charles Lamb, John Wilkes, Samuel Pepys, clock making and clock makers. In addition, five archive collections are held at Guildhall Library: those of the livery companies, the Stock Exchange, Christ's Hospital, St Paul's Cathedral and material associated with the Lloyd's Marine Collection.
There are specialist book collections on the following subjects:
The local history collections are not restricted to London but cover the whole of the British Isles. In addition to complete sets of the Victoria County History of England volumes and the Pevsner Architectural Guides, the library holds a collection of county, town and village histories, and also holds journals and other publications of many local history and archaeological societies. The combination of the libraries of the Antiquarian Horological Society, the Clockmakers' Company and the Corporation's own holdings means the Guildhall offers a horological reference collection of international standing.
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts. The essence of antiquarianism is a focus on the empirical evidence of the past, and is perhaps best encapsulated in the motto adopted by the 18th-century antiquary Sir Richard Colt Hoare, "We speak from facts, not theory."
John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, The Chronicles of England, and The Annales of England; and also A Survey of London. A. L. Rowse has described him as "one of the best historians of that age; indefatigable in the trouble he took, thorough and conscientious, accurate – above all things devoted to truth".
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a royal charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The company established a library and its museum in 1813, which is the oldest specific collection of clocks and watches worldwide. This is administered by the company's affiliated charity, the Clockmakers' Charity, and is presently housed on the second floor of London's Science Museum. The modern aims of the company and its museum are charitable and educational, in particular to promote and preserve clockmaking and watchmaking, which as of 2019 were added to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts.
Guildhall is a municipal building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The current building dates from the 15th century; however documentary evidence suggests that a guildhall had existed at the site since at least the early 12th century. The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation. It should not be confused with London's City Hall, the administrative centre for Greater London. The term "Guildhall" refers both to the whole building and to its main room, which is a medieval great hall. It is a Grade I-listed building.
Moorgate was one of the City of London, England's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its present name in 1997, having previously been known as the Greater London Record Office. It is administered and financed by the City of London Corporation.
The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guildhall, which is adjacent and to which it is connected internally.
The Clockmakers’ Museum in London, England, is believed to be the oldest collection specifically of clocks and watches in the world. The collection belongs to and is administered by the Clockmakers’ Charity, affiliated to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, founded in 1631 by Royal Charter. Since 2015 it has been housed in a gallery provided by the Science Museum in South Kensington, having formerly been located in the Guildhall complex in the City of London since 1874, where it first opened to the public. Admission is free.
The British Horological Institute (BHI) is the representative body of the horological industry in the United Kingdom. It was founded by a group of clockmakers in 1858, and has its current premises at Upton Hall in Nottinghamshire, which includes a museum of clock history.
Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London. Small, it is bounded by wards: Coleman Street, east; Cheap, south; Cripplegate, north; Aldersgate, west.
Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks dating back to 1610. These drawings and other early records prior to 1780 went missing but other records from that date are stored with the London Metropolitan Archives. Further records are stored by Thwaites & Reed up to present day.
The Antiquarian Horological Society, abbreviated to AHS, is the UK-based learned society for scholars and enthusiasts of horology. Its administrative office is at 4 Lovat Lane, a listed building close to the Monument, in the City of London. In early 2016, the Society appointed Dr Patricia Fara of Clare College, Cambridge as its new president, following the untimely death of its previous president Professor Lisa Jardine. The Chairman is Dr James Nye.
J. B. Joyce & Co, clockmakers, were founded in Shropshire in England. The company claim to be the oldest clock manufacturer in the world, originally established in 1690, and have been part of the Smith of Derby Group since 1965. The claim is challenged by another English firm of clockmakers, Thwaites & Reed, who claim to have been in continuous manufacture since before 1740, with antecedents to 1610.
The Inner Temple Library is a private law library in London, England, serving barristers, judges, and students on the Bar Professional Training Course. Its parent body is the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court.
St Michael Bassishaw, or Basinshaw, was a parish church in Basinghall Street in the City of London, standing on land now occupied by the Barbican Centre complex. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The rebuilt church was demolished in 1900.
Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy was a clockmaker, active in 18th and 19th century Britain. He succeeded his father Benjamin Vulliamy as head of the firm and Clockmaker to the Crown.
Joseph Knibb (1640–1711) was an English clockmaker of the Restoration era. According to author Herbert Cescinsky, a leading authority on English clocks, Knibb, "next to Tompion, must be regarded as the greatest horologist of his time."
William Henry Overall (1829–1888) was an English librarian and antiquary.
Eric John Dingwall (1890–1986) was a British anthropologist, psychical researcher and librarian.
The Dingwall Beloe Lecture Series is the result of bequests by Eric Dingwall, formerly an Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum, and to the Clockmakers Company by Reginald Beloe TD, the noted horological collector and Master of the Company in 1977.
51°30′57″N0°05′34″W / 51.5159°N 0.0928°W
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