Bishopsgate Institute - Bishopsgate Library

Bishopsgate Library

Bishopsgate Library is a free, independent library, open every weekday.

Bishopsgate Library holds important historical collections about London, the labour movement, free thought and cooperative movements, as well as the history of protest and campaigning.

The archive at the Bishopsgate Library holds over 20,000 images in three collections – The London & Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS) Glass Slide Collection, the London Co-operative Society and the London Collection Digital Photographs. They have recently shared some of their images from LAMAS in 1977 on Historypin. This collection contains images of many of London’s famous landmarks including churches, statues, open spaces and buildings, as well as images showing social and cultural scenes from the early 20th century.

It's librarian between 1897 and 1941 was Charles Goss, who argued against the trend to create open access libraries and innovated descriptive cataloguing to improve closed access discovery. His papers are held at the institute's archive. He established their special collections in London history, labour history, free-thought and humanism.