Lincoln’s Inn has a reference library for members of the Inn and for student barristers. In existence since at least 1487, the Library nowadays occupies a building  created as part of the complex containing the Great Hall, designed by Philip Hardwick. It was formally opened in 1845 by Queen Victoria. Originally 80 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 44 feet high, it was almost doubled in length in 1872 by George Gilbert Scott. You have to look very closely to spot the join.

The Library has a collection of 150,000 books and over 1000 rare manuscripts. The latter incudes a copy of Piers Plowman, a Middle English narrative poem by William Langland, written in about 1375. This contains the first known reference to a tradition of Robin Hood Tales.

The Reading Room in the Wellcome Collection on London’s Euston Road is a hybrid of library and museum. It’s next to the Collection’s Library, which is restricted to Readers – but they are very liberal in their issue of Readers’ tickets. The Reading Room is open to everyone, and has books and objects grouped around themes related to the Collection’s interests, including travel, pain, food and the body.

“You can discover amulets and charms from all over the world, draw a self-portrait, or unroll a replica of an alchemical scroll.”

On the shelves there are over 1,000 different titles, featuring fiction, memoirs, graphic novels, magazines and even pop-up books. Sofas and beanbags provide sitting space, and there are also some desks and tables. 

The Reading Room is double height, and was originally a gallery in the neo-Classical Wellcome building, designed by Septimus Warwick in the 1930s. The building as a whole was refurbished in 2015 by Wilkinson Eyre, and the Reading Room was given a completely new appearance and function by AOC Architecture. It’s a lovely and generally very peaceful space. 

The British Museum Reading Room was the brainchild of Antonio Panizzi, the Keeper of Printed Books in the mid-nineteenth century. It was designed by Sydney Smirke, younger brother of Robert Smirke, the architect of the Museum, and constructed in the empty central courtyard  between 1854 and 1857. Built from cast iron, glass, and concrete, the room had a diameter of 140 feet, and was inspired by the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, which at 142 feet is only slightly larger. The ceiling is suspended on cast iron struts which hang down from the frame, and is made from papier-mâché.  

The bookstacks surrounding the Reading Room were made of iron, and contained 25 miles of shelves. To use the Room people had to apply in writing, and if approved they were issued with Readers’ Tickets by the Principal Librarian. Among those who studied there were Karl Marx and Lenin (who signed in using the name Jacob Richter).