London Library

Founded in 1841, the London Library is Europe’s largest independent lending library. The Library’s collections hold more than one million items; it also holds subscriptions with over 300 online journals, augmented with access to thousands more through online resources. Special collections date to as early as 1500.

The Library’s membership is over 7,500 subscribers and it recently introduced a series of targeted membership schemes. These include its State Schools Programme, offering state schools fully subsidised annual school membership, and its Supported Membership Programme. It also runs a dedicated programme for emerging writers, providing them with a year’s membership, as well as masterclasses, networking opportunities, peer support, and publication in the cohort anthology. It also offers lectures and panels devoted to a wide range of topics, including environmentalism, architecture, art history, history, and literary fiction.

A previous grant in 2011 by the Trust supported the Library’s Intellectual Refugee Fellowships, which provided full Library membership for two years to intellectual refugees based in the UK.