FAQs

The following FAQs support the information that the Library has provided as part of its consultation with members on this proposed building project.

The consultation period is now closed. Thank you for to everyone who shared their feedback and views. You can read the results of our consultation here.

Should you wish to get in touch about our campaign please email us at feedback@londonlibrary.co.uk with your comments or questions.

The cost for the whole project is an estimated £7m. As the project will be completed in phases the costs will be allocated to each phase decreasing the risk of a high cost project.
The estimates allow for inflation for parts of the project that are in the next few years. This has been calculated by our quantity surveyors who we will continue to work with throughout the project.
We will be raising funds specifically for this capital project. That work has begun already. This project will not use funds from membership fees which currently fund around two-thirds of the Library operation.
We are confident of raising the money for this ambitious and important project for the Library, however, the phased approach will help to manage any risks.
We will be raising money from funders who are specifically interested in funding capital projects. This will not stop us from raising funds to support other areas of The Library's work for which the fundraising team have separate targets.
We do not expect membership fees to increase as a result of this project. The Library has to increase fees annually to keep up with inflation and operating costs, however, we predict that the redevelopments will help us to further grow membership and income, which helps to keep fee increases to a minimum.

Cost

No, the images shown are to give idea of the spaces and uses of the spaces. No design decisions have been finalised at this point.
To accommodate these changes, we are removing some shelving and relocating some of our collection to secure offsite storage. We have been in consultation with members regarding the collections in the Basement and believe we are able to accommodate the requests members have made to retain specific items on site.
We do not anticipate a change in opening hours due to the building project or provision of the new facilities.
The building work will take place in phases, it is likely that some work will start in the front basement only in early 2025, taking around 6 months. There will then be some work in the back of the issue hall and staff offices behind the issue hall for around 6 months. Work on the lift and 6th floor is currently planned to begin in 2026 or 2027.
Previous building projects have concentrated on building more bookstacks so we are now at a phase where we need to add facilities that we are missing or are very limited at the Library. Futher bookstacks may be considered in future building projects.
While we expect the project to increase membership, it will also increase capacity, accessibility and services for the membership.
The works will comply with all regulations related to environment, current designs include an air source heat pump for the 6th floor, maximised use of natural lighting and photovoltaic solar panels to supply electricity to the 6th floor.
The project has been in existence in some form for 20 years. In 2005, the Library was granted planning permission for a reading room, members' room and roof terrace om the 5th and 6th floor. This has been informed by member, trustee and staff suggestions and feedback and was revisited in our 2018-2024 strategy.
The Trustees of the Library overall, the Trustees’ Buildings and Facilities Committee led by Stephanie Hall and the executive team.
The architects are Haworth Tompkins, previous Stirling Prize winners and specialists in buildings similar to The London Library. They have worked with us since 2004. The design team supporting the architects have been chosen for their similar experience and relationship with the Library on previous projects.
Yes, especially the plans on the 6th floor, terrace and lift which will all be more accessible than the current offering. The new lift will have room for a person in a wheelchair plus another person, which the current lift does not and there will be turning space on each floor. The current 6th floor offering is not fully wheelchair accessible but the redeveloped 6th floor and the terrace on the 5th floor will be wheelchair accessible. There will also be the addition of an an extra accessible toilet on the 6th floor.
Members were invited to share their feedback and views during a two-month pre-planning consultation period via a survey, by writing to us, and at our in-person consultation events. Please see consultation feedback here.

Overview

Throughout the Library's history redevelopments to the building have been crucial to improving the use of the Library and the member experience. The idea of improving the Library's space on the 6th floor has been around for over a decade. Through member surveys we know that a large percentage of members would like to have an improved space to meet with other members and a catering offer. By providing these facilities, for those who would like them, in a distinct area of the building we will also strengthen the quiet and undisturbed nature of the other spaces such as The Reading Room. The improved space would also encourage more members to visit the building, enabling greater browsing of the stacks and engaging with the Library’s extensive collection of around 1m volumes
Yes we have many years of suggestions from members that they would like a café so that they may stay at the Library to eat and drink, spaces where they can meet with other members and informal reading and writing space. Members have also expressed that leaving the Library to find a café interrupts their focus. See consultation feedback here.
No, the 6th floor will not be open to the public. As with existing rules regarding bringing guests to the Library, it is anticipated that members will be able to sign in guests to visit the 6th floor meeting place and terrace with them.
There will be a reading room, a reading and meeting place with a café counter, a roof terrace, phone booths and toilets.
We do not anticipate a change in opening hours due to the building project or provision of the new facilities.
Yes, we encourage our members to take care of our books at home and in all areas of the Library.
Yes, we know that this is important to members and so they would still be able to eat and drink items brought from home in the new 6th floor facility. However, there will not be facilities to make or store food and drink as the cafe kitchen will be a staff area.
While this is the most significant part of the project it also has the highest cost attached and will take longer to fundraise for, therefore to reduce risk it will be delivered in the last stage.
The catering offering has not yet been decided but it is likely to include hot and cold drinks, light lunch options and cakes/pastries.
It is anticipated that the catering will be managed in-house.

Sixth floor and terrace

No, the Library intends to stay open to members throughout all building works as we have in the past. There may be some areas that are not accessible at some times but we will endeavour to make all of our collections and facilities available.
The building work will take place in phases, it is likely that some work will start in the front basement only in early 2025. There will then be some work in the back of the issue hall and staff offices behind the issue hall for around 6 months. Work on the lift and 6th floor is planned to begin in 2026 or 2027.
The Library has undertaken major building works in the past, using the same architects, while remaining open to members so we are confident that we will be able to keep noise and disruption to a minimum. Contractors chosen to tender will need to demonstrate they have completed projects in similar sensitive environments, and we will work with them to enable quiet periods and aim to schedule the most disruptive work when we are not open to members. We will keep members up to date regularly during works.
We will use our website, newsletter and building signage to keep members regularly up to date. We will have a regular newsletter and daily updates to our website that focus on any disruption. We will also write to members and update in our magazine with any substantial updates on the works.
Each phase of the project will take differing lengths of time, the earliest stages will be around 6 months.
We hope to provide facilities elsewhere in the building for any spaces lost while works are ongoing.
We hope to provide some facilities elsewhere in the building for any spaces lost while works are ongoing.
We will work closely with staff and managers at the Library to ensure the wellbeing of staff and everyone is kept well informed and able to continue to perform their roles at the Library throughout these developments.
We do not anticipate areas of the collection being unavailable, there may be areas for which we have to reroute the access and we will increase our capacity to fetch books for members where needed.
It is planned that these will go in the Foyle Lightwell Reading Room as soon as work starts in the current Catalogue Hall (at the back of the Issue Hall)
The material identified for off-site storage is foreign language periodicals and society publications, and journals that have been discontinued. We will also complete the off-siting of journals that are available online. Following consultation with members, all of the Russian periodicals and society publications will be retained on site, along with a number of titles in other languages that members specifically identified. All items held in off-site store can be retrieved within 72 hours for members to use. We are grateful to those members who have engaged with us over this work.
Just over 800 linear metres of shelving is being removed, which is 2.7% of the Library’s total shelving capacity.

Works and disruption

The Discovery Room will have a wide variety of uses that focus on our public benefit remit as a charity such as sixth-form visits, exhibitions and displays, and workshops with other charity partners. It will be used by members for our member groups, speaker events and panel discussions, and trustee meetings. The room will also be available for private hire to help the Library financially.
The Discovery Room location was chosen to minimise disruption to other Library users, it is currently a space which is predominantly staff offices, the room will have its own toilets and facilities and any external users will not have free access to the rest of the Library.
No, the Discovery Room is a working title that reflects the huge potential for literary discovery that exists at the Library.

Discovery Room

The existing central lift is the only lift that provides step-free access to all floors of the building and unfortunately is old and breaks down occasionally. Although we did investigate updating and increasing the size of the new lift that was not possible. It is also likely that with the improved spaces on the 6th floor there will be a higher volume of people wishing to use the lift to access that area and therefore two lifts will be necessary. A new lift will ensure a more reliable accessible route to the collections as well as the improved space on the 6th floor.
The architects are working with an acoustician on the whole project, they are specifically choosing the lift for its quietness.
There will be some visibility of the lift from the west end of The Reading Room. There is an option for this to be obscured so that it does not change the atmosphere of The Reading Room, for example by frosting the glass of one of the windows or the lift car. We will be discussing this with our architects as the project progresses.
The Foyle Lightwell Reading Room will remain in place and the lift will be clad in a way that is in keeping with the rest of the room. It is also intended to keep bookshelves in that room.

Lift

Currently caterers use The Study as a field kitchen which is not an ideal food preparation space and risks damage to the space and collection in that area. Private hire is a successful source of revenue for the Library helping to sustain its financial future.
In addition the basement kitchen will replace a back of house kitchenette for the Discovery Room and allow for a kitchen which can be used for caterers for events and provide storage to serve the 6th floor catering in due course.
The changes in the basement are to accommodate a kitchen, and secure areas to house our archive and older books from our collection. This will require the removal of some periodicals and society publications to off-site store, as well as the removal of some shelving.