The Library of St. Paul’s Cathedral is one of the oldest continuously operating collections of books, manuscripts, and church-related artifacts in the Anglophone world. The oldest item in the collections dates to 1099, well before Sir Christopher Wren completed the English Baroque building after the 1666 Great Fire of London. There has been a catalogued library on site since at least 1313, which was likely a successor to an earlier collection of liturgical books and sacramental or financial registers and documentation of royal or noble patronage. Today’s library configuration dates to 1709 in the Triforium, or gallery level behind the southwest tower, and contains 13,000 books and manuscripts.
A projected four-year project to restore the library began in 2018, just one year before the COVID-19 pandemic, at a cost of £800,000 (just over $1 million). Since May 2023, 900 boxes of cleaned books are back on site after a sojourn at a conservation-approved decommissioned U.S. Air Force hangar in Oxfordshire. An online catalogue helps remote visitors and potential on-site researchers to explore collections of archives and art at the item level, and an online catalogue of printed books has been recently launched.
TLC reached Anna James, Librarian of St. Paul’s since August 2023, to ask about the changes and chances of her position. James is a former cataloger at Lambeth Palace Library (2005-13), and Regent’s Park College, Oxford (2013-16), and librarian and archivist at Pusey House (2015-19). She also served as archivist of the Medical Mission Sisters in London (2020-23). She is a candidate for a Lambeth Research Doctoral Degree in Theology.
What makes a cathedral library different from a diocesan library, a seminary library, or a parish library?
In England, Anglican diocesan and seminary libraries were founded in the Victorian era, and large parish libraries tend to date from the 17th century or later. Most cathedral libraries are much older. Several — including St. Paul’s — can trace their beginnings to the seventh century. The origins of these libraries are often monastic, and many contain manuscripts which have been on the site longer than the cathedral buildings which house them.
This is a working research library at a cathedral church welcoming perhaps two million tourists and worshipers annually. How many researchers come to you each year? How does location in a major national tourist destination affect library and research services?
I’ve worked in some pretty amazing heritage buildings over the years, and I’m used to the combination of bitter cold, inconvenient staircases, and sudden glimpses of outrageous beauty that old ecclesiastical buildings can offer. But St. Paul’s is a national treasure, and an international icon. It can be difficult to balance the occasionally conflicting needs of the tourists, the worshipers, the collections, and the building. Although when we get it right, the tourists, the worshipers, the collections, and the building all support each other in a mutually beneficial way.
At a very rough estimate, around 3,000 people come through the library each year on guided Triforium Tours to look at the room and hear about its history, or on special visits where there will be carefully selected books on display for the group to learn about.
Currently only a tiny handful of people sit down to read the books (the archives are more popular). It’s taken a while for people to realize that the library has reopened post-COVID and post-refurbishment, but things are picking up again: there have been as many readers in the library this week as there were during my first two months in post. A public-facing book catalogue will be joining the online archives and art catalogues later in the year, which will make our printed collections far more visible and accessible. Getting an OPAC [online public access catalog] doesn’t make headlines these days, but they remain one of the most reliable — if underrated — forms of advertising for libraries.
The bombing of Lambeth Palace Library in 1941 is a well-known episode in the Battle of Britain. Did either of the two German bombs to fall on St. Paul’s do damage to your library? What happened to the collections during the Second World War?
St. Paul’s proximity to the London Docks created a huge risk, so the library collections were sent to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth for safekeeping. Bombs hit the east and north of the cathedral, so the library in the southwest corner was unscathed, and able to retain its unofficial accolade of “most unchanged 18th-century interior in London.” The war did leave its mark, however, as there are still signs for the fire-watching team painted on the walls of the Triforium, showing all the different places where volunteers were stationed at night (after working all day) to monitor and deal with fires from incendiary bombs or burning debris. The members of St. Paul’s Watch formed such strong bonds with each other, and with the cathedral, that after the war they reformed as the Friends of St. Paul’s, a group which still continues to provide support to the cathedral and its collections.
St. Paul’s has a unique place in the history of life in London, in the nation, and in the English-speaking world as well as the Anglican Communion. Most of TLC’s readers are American Episcopalians. What would most interest us in your collections?
One of our first major post-fire donors was Henry Compton, Bishop of London. When he died in 1713, he left 2,000 volumes from his wide-ranging book collection to help restock St. Paul’s library. At that time, the Bishop of London had oversight of all Anglican churches and chaplaincies outside the British Isles, including in the Americas, and although most of his books were theology, there are also items which show him taking an interest in communities overseas. Compton was a keen scientist, which means that we have more 17th-century botany and medicine than one might expect to find in an average cathedral collection.
But wherever people come from, the item which tends to cause the greatest excitement is the first edition of Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament: the first Bible portion to be printed in English, and one of only three surviving copies. Sometimes people are a bit disappointed when they see it, because it’s very small, and not very grand. Then I explain it was a banned book, and being small and plain made it easier to smuggle and to hide, and people get excited again. It’s having its 500th birthday in 2026, and will be on display in the library during the latter half of that year. Book your tickets to England now!
Why are some items belonging to the cathedral archives on site, and others at the London Archives?
The non-current part of the archives were moved to the record office for the City of London in 1980, where it was felt they could be better cared for and made more accessible for use by researchers. However, some really old records remain in current use to some extent (including sets of minutes and architectural plans) and they were kept in-house. People have continued to make new records in the intervening four decades, and the archivist is currently getting to grips with born-digital documents.
Can supporters of your work do anything to earmark contributions for conservation or acquisitions?
I had to check this one out with our Development Department. They say: “It costs £14.5 million to run the cathedral each year and we are most grateful to all our worshipers, visitors, and supporters for their generosity in enabling us to provide a space for reflection, discovery, learning, and debate. We also need to raise additional funds to maintain and conserve our buildings and our collections, and we would encourage supporters to make general donations to the cathedral so we are able to prioritize spending the funds where the need is greatest. Conservation of books in our library is currently one of our priorities.”
What should visitors know before they come to you?
Much to my regret, it’s not physically possible to let people just pop in to the library: to read a book, you have to make an appointment in advance by emailing CollectionsDepartment@stpaulscathedral.org.uk. For those wanting to take a look at the library and hear about its history, you need to book a guided Triforium Tour in addition to a regular tourist ticket.
Where we do we find you on weekends and on vacation?
I have a chapter deadline approaching for my Ph.D., so at the moment weekends and holidays (I’m British, I don’t vacation) find me in libraries which do not pay me to be there, looking up things about the history of Anglican Theology College libraries with an increasingly anxious air.
Ideally, I would now reel off a list of exciting, daredevil hobbies which I do when I have more time, to challenge the librarian stereotype. I enjoy reading, museums, theatres, tea, cake, and being bullied by my cat, Christopher “Kit” Marlowe, thus letting down librarians everywhere.
