Thanks to the generosity of all those who have supported the project, we have secured the required funds to commence building works for Phase One of the Library's Building Connections project. We are aiming to start the building works in late July in order to be complete by the end of December 2025.

The new room on the ground floor will be a permanent, dedicated space for a wide variety of uses that focus on our public benefit remit as a charity, such as sixth-form school visits, meetings of our Emerging Writers, exhibitions and displays, and workshops with other charitable organisations. It will provide a venue for our member special interest groups to meet in, as well as hosting speaker events, discussions, and trustee meetings, and will also be available for private hire.

In addition to this, Phase One includes creating a basement kitchen, which will enable our event caterers to stop using the Study as a field kitchen and provide a consolidated storage area for our catering supplies.

Phase One will involve work in small, contained areas of the building, away from main reading rooms and most of the collection. The Library and its architects have long experience in keeping the Library open during works and keeping disruption to a minimum and this remains a priority.

The final design work is continuing while we move to the procurement phase. Please continue to check this website for updates as plans progress including more detailed information about the plans, designs and building works, as well as our FAQs page for more information.

In mid-May we submitted our application to Westminster Council for planning permission in respect of Phase Two (the 6th floor renovation, roof terrace and lift). The planning process is expected to take several months and will provide formal planning feedback on our initial designs. Our design work on this part of the project is therefore temporarily on hold while we await the Council’s response.  

We currently expect the works to commence in the week commencing 4 August 2025, enabling us to take advantage of the quieter period in the Library over summer and keep any inconvenience to a minimum.

During the works, the area beyond the ground floor lift containing the printer, scanner, catalogue computers and guard books will be closed. Members will continue to have access to these services throughout the works as the equipment and books will be moved to the new locations listed below. These moves will commence in the week commencing 21 July 2025. 

PCs: 1 to the Issue Hall

2 to the Foyle Lightwell

1 to the Back Stacks basement

1 to the Central Stacks (Floors 4)

1 to the Stoppard Room

Overhead book scanner: Foyle Lightwell

Photocopier& printer: Issue Hall

The front part of the basement (the area directly below the Issue Hall) will also be closed for the duration of the works. Access to volumes in this area will therefore be restricted but we shall be putting in place arrangements for Library staff to access the volumes in that area, so that members may still use the collection housed in that part of the building. The basement toilets will remain fully accessible. 

Preparation works commence on 4 August with noise disruption expected in the Issue Hall while hoardings are installed and roller racking from part of the front basement is removed. In addition, there will be no access to the following collections: 

Societies – from A to Hakluyt Society, then Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society to Bullettino dell’Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica 1851-1852

Annuals – all

Philology – all

Periodicals octavo from Fortnightly review 1912 to Z 

The building works should be complete at the end of December 2025, with the room ready for use in February or March 2026. 

We expect that the rest of the Library will remain unaffected by the Phase One building works. 

For more details about potential building works disruption, visit the London Library website.