Specialist libraries
There are all sorts of specialist libraries. Obviously our interest is theological and Christian. ABTAPL (The Association of British Theological And Philosophical Libraries) was originally formed to be the UK member of an international Association of Theological Libraries set up in 1954, following a meeting convened by the WCC under UNESCO auspices.
They provide an online directory that lists some 53 such libraries here in London and another 400 elsewhere in the British Isles.
(https://www.newman.ac.uk/abtapl/database/contents.html Accessed March 2017. There are 30 in Oxford, 20 in Cambridge, 29 in Scotland, 17 in Ireland and 8 each in N Ireland and Wales.) Some of these are of lesser interest (University libraries, local public libraries, Roman Catholic ones and others to do with other religions and sects.) but some are worth mentioning
- The London Library (with a million volumes all told)
- The Huguenot Library in nearby Gower Street
- The Lambeth Palace Library, which since 1996 has included the bulk of the largely Puritan Sion College Library
- The Bible Society Library, Oxford
- The Angus Library and archive for Baptist history, Oxford
- Tyndale House Library, Cambridge (42,000 volumes)
- The Gospel Standard Baptist Library, Hove
- The Gladstone Library, Hawarden, North Wales
- The various Wesley libraries in Bristol, London and Oxford
(http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/
http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/library-and-archive.html
http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/
https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/about-us/our-history/archives-at-cambridge/
http://theangus.rpc.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/library
http://www.gospelstandard.org.uk/Library/
https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/ The Gladstone Library is residential)
Dr Williams Library (For more on Dr Williams's Library see http://dwl.ac.uk/)
To look at two more libraries in a little detail, you probably know that the library in which this lecture is being given was established by the will of Welsh born Presbyterian Dissenter Dr Daniel Williams (1643-1716). After serving in Ireland he became a leading London nonconformist minister. When he died he left instructions to his trustees to turn his private collection into a public library available for nonconformist ministers, tutors and students in the City of London. The library first opened in Red Cross Street, Cripplegate in 1730, largely due to the selfless efforts of his trustees who contributed and raised the necessary funds to build and equip a separate library building.
The collections were greatly enlarged over the years with many important gifts of books, manuscripts and portraits, so that the original 7600 books now form only a small part of the library which goes well beyond Puritanism to cover all sorts of biblical subjects, church history and more.
In 1865 the Metropolitan Railway bought the Red Cross Street premises and after a temporary stay at No.8, Queen Square, there was a move to a new building in Grafton Street in 1873. In 1889 the then Trustees acquired University Hall, Gordon Square, where the Library opened in 1890, where it has been ever since. The Congregational Library is also housed there. Last year, 2016, marked the tercentenary of the Trust and a new history was prepared by Dr Williams's Research Fellow, Dr Alan Argent.
(The building's designer was the winner of an architectural competition, Thomas Leverton Donaldson (1795-1885), Professor of Architecture at University College, London. It was built in 1848-49 as University Hall to mark the passing of the 1844 Dissenters' Chapels Act. The premises were shared by Manchester New College from 1853, which acquired the lease in 1882. When the college (now Harris Manchester College) moved to Oxford in 1889, the building was acquired from its trustees by Dr Williams's Trust)
The Library currently has about 250,000 volumes and about 150 periodical runs. It adds about a thousand volumes a year and 80 periodicals. Special collections include a 17th Century French Protestant theology one.(There are also Unitarian collections under the names Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804); Christopher Walton's Theosophical Library; Norman H Baynes' Byzantine Library, the G H Lewes & George Eliot Library and the New College, London Library.) There are also manuscript collections, including those of Roger Morrice (1628-1702); the Westminster Assembly minutes; Richard Baxter's letters and diaries, etc and mss of George Herbert (1593-1633).
The Evangelical Library (For more on The Evangelical Library see http://evangelical-library.org.uk/)
It has been my privilege to be on the board of the Evangelical Library many years, latterly as chair. The Library's founder was London Strict Baptist businessman Geoffrey Williams (1886-1975) who founded it as the Beddington Free Grace Library in 1933. His vision for the library began with the accumulation in his Beddington home, 12 miles from London, of a private collection of Reformed and Puritan evangelical classics but he soon developed a vision fuelled by a double realisation. First, the anomaly that a Protestant nation that by then possessed a variety of specialist information libraries yet lacked a national repository for the best Protestant evangelical literature. At the same time, there was the growing realisation that many excellent evangelical works were fast disappearing from the public domain. Puritan and Reformed literature was being banished from theological libraries and ministers studies with alacrity.
So Geoffrey Williams set himself the task of reclaiming as many volumes as possible as a heritage for future generations. The silver lining in it all was that at the time original works, some very rare, were turning up on barrows in street markets and similar places at rock bottom prices. Williams systematically scoured the length and breadth of the country pursuing a wide range of important books for the collection. His tireless efforts were richly rewarded and today from the acorn of that original collection a rich oak has grown.
A crucial moment was when in 1938 Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was made aware of the Library. (This happened through a Welsh speaking Calvinistic Methodist minister Eliseus Howell (1893-1969))
He immediately saw how it tuned in with his own burning desire for what we may call the three R’s: Restoration of God's Word at the heart of the Christian community, Reformation of the church that teaches that Word and, ultimately, Revival of the people brought about by a personal relationship with Christ.
Lloyd-Jones was keen to bring the Library to central London and in 1944, even though the country was still at war, this happened. The first location was Gloucester Road, South Kensington but in 1946 the Library was installed in an old school building on Chiltern Street near Baker Street Tube. An attractive location in many ways, it was possible to have use of the building on very attractive terms. As the years went by problems became apparent, however, with draughts and leaks and great difficulties heating the place. The second and third floor location was also a problem for some although it was possible to install a lift latterly.
Eventually, it was agreed that a move was necessary and after several options were explored a move was made near the end of 2009 to a brand new double unit with parking spaces in North London, near Bounds Green Tube Station. The new location has proved a great asset, maintaining the London connection but escaping damp conditions, a potentially unsympathetic landlord and the congestion zone.
The Library currently has about 80,000 volumes and about 60 periodical runs, including a complete run of the now defunct Christian Herald magazine. It adds volumes as and when it can (about 500 annually) and takes in about a hundred periodicals. There is a small manuscript collection that includes letters from A W Pink (1886-1962), letters to George Whitefield (1714-1770) and what appear to be sermons by Philip Henry (1631-1696). There is also an interesting portrait collection. The Library now houses the archive of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity and has recently agreed to house The Strict Baptist Historical Society collection of 5000 books, several periodicals and 350 church minute books, account books, etc. from over a hundred churches. We hope shortly to receive a collection of about 5000 books originally kept in Grove Chapel, Camberwell but that have been in Australia for over 25 years.
