A Teaser

I can't leave you with just a couple of words on this place, it is a real London gem.  So I am going to leave a promise that I will take you inside very soon and tell you all about it.

A Medieval Gem

It was nearing the end of the weekend of open house when we were handed an information sheet of late entries to the weekend.  Only one was close enough for us to get there to make it for last entry time.  We were not disappointed.

The Maughan Library is the main research library for Kings College on the Strand Campus.  The 19th century neo-Gothic building was acquired by the university in 2001.  Previously it had been the Public Records Office, a place where many precious public documents had been stored in fire proof cells, especially during the war years when documents as valuable as the Magna Carta where saved by virtue of the protection offered here.

The earliest building known to stand on this site was the Domus Conversorum (the House of Converts).  The house was established in 1232 to provide a sanctury for Jews who converted to Christianity  following  the 1290 Edict of Expulsion of Edward 1.  The following year work began on the attached chapel.

In 1317 Edward 111 assigned the House and chapel to be used to store the rolls and records of the  Court of Chancery.

The chapel underwent major renovations during the 17th and 18th centuries and demolition in 1895. All that remains is an arch which now resides in the garden, three funerary monuments and a beautiful mosaic tiled floor that fem part of the lib ray known as the Weston Room.

At a time when libraries seem to be out of fashion and closures the norm it was a treat to stumble upon a this Victorian gem. Bishopsgate library has an extensive resource on London's history, freethought, protest and the labour movement.  It is funded by charities and free for anyone to use. 

Strangeworks

As part of the Shakespeare Festival, the Barbican has created a library trail aimed at primary school children.
They are given the following brief:
"Quotes from the Bard's famous works have gone missing from Shakespeare’s Library and are lost in the Barbican’s concrete jungle. Now the Librarians desperately need your help to capture the quotes before they are lost forever!"

I found the quote (pictured) as single words floating in various pools around the courtyard.