Homes for the books

Portrait of Thomas Linacre. Pen and ink, artist and date unknown. PH4841  
The Stone House, 5 Knightrider Street, from The gold-headed cane. William MacMichael, published London, 1827. MS2245, f. 12b, fig. 4 

The College’s very first library belonged to its founding president, Henry VIII’s physician Thomas Linacre (c.1460–1524). When he died, Linacre left his medical books to the College. Fellows and others subsequently expanded this collection through generous gifts and donations. 

At this time, the College used Linacre’s own house on Knightrider Street as its premises.  

Portrait of Christopher Merrett. Pencil and watercolour by George Perfect Harding, 19th century. PR3701  
John Webb’s design for the Musaeum Harveianum. The Provost & Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford, photography by Colin Dunn 

The library moved with the College in 1614 to its second premises at Amen Corner. In the 1650s, William Harvey made a major donation of his books, manuscripts and objects. He called this collection the Musaeum Harveianum.  

Harvey also paid for the construction of a new library building at Amen Corner, designed by English architect John Webb (1611–1672), and the appointment of the College’s first librarian, English physician Christopher Merrett (1614–1695).   

The Amen Corner building and most of the library – including the Musaeum Harveianum – were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Of the 1,278 books in the library, Merrett was able to rescue only about 100. 

Historiae naturalis de avibus libri vi [Six books about the natural history of birds]
Joannes Jonstonus, published Frankfurt am Main, 1650
CN12752 

The Great Fire of London reached the Royal College of Physicians’ headquarters at Amen Corner – near to St Paul’s Cathedral – on the afternoon of Tuesday 4 September 1666, 2 and a half days after it began.  

Flames were reportedly already licking at the library when the College librarian, Christopher Merrett, ‘saved severall burdens of the said heap of books so on fire and in particular the 4 tomes of Johnston’: one of which is displayed here. It is easy to see from these captivating illustrations of birds – both real and imagined – why Merrett prioritised the rescue of this work. 

After the Great Fire and the loss of most of the library, the College fired Merrett from his position as librarian. He retaliated by refusing to return the books he rescued, until the matter was eventually settled in court and the 95 books were reclaimed by the physicians. 

Possibly donated by William Petty FRCP (1623–1687) 

RCP premises on Warwick Lane, from Pharmacopoeia Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis. Published London, 1746. MS2245, p. 35, fig. 32 
Section plan of the Warwick Lane buildings. MS2245, p. 27a. Photography by John Chase 

After the Great Fire, the College moved into new, bespoke premises on Warwick Lane, designed by architect Robert Hooke (1635–1703). No library space was included in his designs.  

In 1680, shortly before he died, the College’s first honorary fellow Henry Pierrepont, Marquis of Dorchester, offered his collection of around 3,000 books to the College – now known formally as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Dorchester’s daughter, Lady Grace Pierrepont, inherited the books, and stipulated that the RCP would receive them only once an appropriate library was built for them. Architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) helped adapt an existing space into a suitable library room and the books were transferred in 1688. Learn more about Grace Pierrepont in the Dorchester Library nearby. 

Despite this substantial donation of books, there was no sustained oversight of the library between Christopher Merrett’s dismissal in 1666 and Richard Tyson’s appointment as Harveian Librarian in 1734. Then from 1750 the role was again vacant, until William Munk took the position in 1857. The post has always been filled since.   

Cash book. Royal College of Physicians, 21 January 1824 and 30 September 1825. MS2043
Reproduced from Wiley Digital Archives, courtesy of Wiley Ltd. 

During the 1820s, the library became homeless when the College moved out of its premises in Warwick Lane before its new building at Pall Mall East had been completed. In an unusual arrangement, the books were housed in the home of sculptor William Behnes at 92 Dean Street, Soho from November 1823 until June 1825. Behnes was paid a £30 quarterly rent.  

In September 1825, the sub-librarian John Hunter was paid £20 for his ‘very meritorious services in forming a new Catalogue of the Books belonging to the College and replacing them in [the] new Library’. Approximately 2.5% of the nearly 9,500 books belonging to the library were found to be missing after the move. 

Comitia in the library at Pall Mall East. Photograph, artist unknown, 1962.  2019.4
The bombing of the RCP library. Proc. R. Soc. Med 1941;34:811–822 

In 1825, the RCP moved from the City of London to the more fashionable West End, into a building designed by architect Robert Smirke (1790–1867) on Pall Mall East, next to Trafalgar Square. Smirke’s wood-panelled library served as a grand venue for all official RCP meetings and ceremonies. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the library actively purchased contemporary books and journals to keep RCP fellows informed about the rapid development of medical science. 

Key treasures from the library, archive and museum alike were moved offsite for safety during the Second World War, to rural locations in Hampshire and Wales – though the bulk of the library initially stayed in London. The library roof at Pall Mall East was hit by a high explosive bomb in October 1940. Although the bomb fortunately did not ignite, the falling glass and masonry from the roof caused damage to some of the books left behind. You can see one of these books in the first case of the exhibition.  

Opera omnia [Complete works]. Cicero, published Hamburg 1619. 
CN10525. Photography John Chase 

At first glance this book appears to have been the victim of a pest attack in the library, perhaps from a particularly hungry rat.  

The damage to its spine was in fact caused by flying shrapnel from a high-explosive bomb that hit the RCP building at Pall Mall East one night in November 1940. The glass dome over the library shattered, and library staff and helpers were fortunate to be able to evacuate themselves and the books from the library shortly before a rainstorm hit London. 

Donated by Grace Pierrepont (1635–1703) 

The library reading room in 1964. Photographer unknown
RCP ceremonies in the Dorchester Library today. Photography by Jon Barlow 

When architect Sir Denys Lasdun (1914–2001) designed the RCP Regent’s Park building, he kept the library as a focal point; the end destination for ceremonies that ascend the dramatic central staircase.  

Lasdun retained the shape and mood of the library from earlier premises, partly to reassure fellows who were alarmed by the stark modernism of the building’s brutalist design. In this way, the library can be considered a key part of the RCP’s identity; to this day, it is the space in which membership and fellowship ceremonies take place. 

Today, the RCP’s library has evolved from Dorchester’s bequest of 3,000 volumes. Given a prominent space in the RCP’s more recent homes, the Heritage Library preserves the original bequest, along with over 52,000 more books donated and purchased in subsequent years. Spanning subjects across medicine, the sciences, the arts, literature, languages and much more, this unique collection features beautiful and fascinating works from across the history of printing in Europe. 

Lasdun’s design also included a well-appointed reading room for the consultation of historical and contemporary books. Today, the RCP’s 40,000 members and fellows worldwide can access clinical and professional development information, through ejournals, ebooks, databases and literature searching provided by the RCP Library.