West End Arts Library
Arts library in London
West End Arts Library, previously called the Westminster Reference Library, is an arts library in St Martin's Street, London, in the City of Westminster, part of the Westminster Libraries & Archives network.
01History
The library was opened by W. Foxley Norris, dean of Westminster, on 8 October 1928 to replace the former library of the parish of St Martin in the Fields. The Leicester Fields chapel, built by the Huguenots in 1693, was once located on the site. Isaac Newton lived on a house on the site from 1710 to 1727, and later the house was occupied by the novelist Fanny Burney. The cellars of that house are part of the current building. The library was designed by the architect A. N. Prentice for Westminster City Council, and built by Walden & Company of Reading. It was modified in the 1950s and 1980s.
02Collections
The library includes a specialist fine art and performing arts collection as well as a Music Library on the first floor.
Since 2021 the library has also been home to the Westminster Music Library collection, which was formerly based at Victoria Library. Westminster Music Library is one of the largest public music libraries in the UK, holding a wide range of sheet music, scores, and books about music.
03Events and exhibitions
Outside library opening hours the library has hosted many events and concerts including Telemachus, Sea Power, Mr Hudson and The Library, Polar Bear, Harry Keyworth, Chisara Agor, Piney Gir and The Real Tuesday Weld.
The library also has art exhibition spaces.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “West End Arts Library”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Library, Orange Street (geograph 5658850).jpg by Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0
- A corner of Westminster reference library (48881853812).jpg by JuliaC2006 from Rochester, UK, CC BY 2.0
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