‘To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life’, wrote William Somerset Maugham in his 1940 novel Books and You. The book throughout history has been used to inform, entertain and educate first the privileged, but now the masses. Books have encountered battles from the collective storms of radio, film, television and the internet, yet still they continue to sell at impressive rates.
In 2024, more than 195 million books were sold in the UK and Ireland alone. They provide an analogue calm in the growing constant digital assault on the senses, transporting us to new worlds, new thoughts, historical eras; exercising our minds in a way no Netflix drama will ever manage.
While the majority of us buy bookcases and erect shelves (and in many cases, more and more shelves) to house our precious collections of books, many of the country’s grand houses and schools have their own, vast libraries. Put up for education, entertainment and sometimes for vanity, the UK is home to some of the most impressive rooms in the world in which one may sit and simply read.
The vast majority are behind closed doors, either in private homes or private institutions, but photographs taken by some of the country’s leading architectural photographers for the Country Life Image Archive allow us to pause and browse a while. Below are a small selection of some of the most impressive, ingenious and calm-inducing libraries from the magazine’s collection.
Chetham’s School and Library
Chetham’s School and Library in Manchester is not only one of the oldest charitable institutions in the country, it houses our oldest public library, too. This hauntingly atmospheric space houses more than 120,000 printed articles, with some precious tomes chained to their shelves so they may be observed, but never removed. Books are protected by impressive gated presses for further security.
Highclere Castle
This image will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has watched Downton Abbey, yet this is not a film set confected in a studio. The library (technically the libraries, as one end is sectioned off by two impressive Doric columns) at Berkshire’s Highclere Castle contains more than 2,000, mainly Victorian books, collected by the Carnarvon family.
The Athenaeum Club
The Athenaeum Club in London is home to this impressive galleried library. After extending as far vertically as possible in the mid-1800’s, the club’s library of more than 80,000 books has since spilled out into two further rooms.
Sissinghurst Castle
Smaller, and definitely more artisan in style is the great diarist Harold Nicholson’s library and study at Sissinghust Castle, Kent. Combined with wife Vita Sackville-West’s library and a more general library in the property, the castle houses more than 11,000 books, making it one of the most extensive collections in the care of the National Trust.
The John Rylands Library
The John Rylands Library, also in Manchester opened in 1899, designed in Gothic style by Basil Champneys. Construction on the cathedral-like building began in 1890, ordered by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her industrialist husband, John. Now owned by The University of Manchester, this distinctly Victorian library is still one of the greatest research libraries in the world.
Ferniehirst Castle
Ferniehirst Castle, Roxburghshire, dates from 1598. Its small, but exquisitely formed library in the circular south-east turret houses an important collection on Borders history. It is hard to imagine a more perfect space in which to escape with a book.
Chatsworth
It was the 6th Duke of Devonshire, an ardent bibliophile and scientist, who, in 1815, began to pull out the paneling in Long Gallery at Chatsworth to convert it into shelving for his library. In this most English of English country houses you will find more than 10,000 books, many first editions, covering the classics, travel and, of course, science.
Penhurst Place
The neo-Jacobean library in the President's Tower at Penshurst Place, Kent, was created by George Devey, in the 19th Century. The property, like Highclere Castle, has played host to many a historical drama, including Tudor epics Wolf Hall, Anne of a Thousand Days and the 1971 BBC series Elizabeth R. For fans of fantasy fiction, however, the property also stars in the 1987 Rob Reiner classic The Princess Bride.
The Country Life Image Archive contains more than 150,000 images documenting British culture and heritage, from 1897 to the present day. An additional 50,000 assets from the historic archive are scheduled to be added this year — with completion expected in Summer 2025. To search and purchase images directly from the Image Archive, please register here
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