page_title: Libraries in Brighton and Hove
section_title: Private and subscription libraries
hierarchical_section_title: Libraries in Brighton and Hove / Private and subscription libraries
caption_attribution_description: St James's Mansions (foreground) and other buildings on the east side of Old Steine, Brighton, City of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.
context_page_description: The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove has a long and varied history of libraries going back over 250 years. Subscription libraries were among the earliest buildings in the resort of Brighton, which developed in the late 18th century; by the 1780s these facilities, which were more like social clubs than conventional book-borrowing venues, were at the heart of the town's social scene. The Brighton Literary Society, its successor the Brighton Royal Literary and Scientific Institution and its rival the Sussex Scientific Institution between them established a "very fine collection" of publications by the mid-19th century, and these books were donated to the town when a public library was founded in 1871. Neighbouring Hove, originally a separate village, established its own public library in 1890.
  Public libraries in the city are run by the Royal Pavilion, Museums and Libraries department of Brighton and Hove City Council. Branch libraries operate in the outlying villages and suburbs of Coldean, Hangleton, Hollingbury, Mile Oak, Moulsecoomb, Patcham, Portslade, Rottingdean, Saltdean, Westdene, Whitehawk and Woodingdean.
context_section_description: Brighthelmstone on the Sussex coast in southeast England developed from a farming and fishing village into the fashionable leisure destination of Brighton from the mid-18th century.  The town quickly attracted "all of the facilities that would have been expected" of a resort of that era.  Among those were the proprietary libraries, also known as circulating libraries.  In Brighton's earliest days as a resort, these privately owned facilities functioned as multi-purpose "informal meeting places" where visitors could "read, chat, listen to music, buy fripperies or gamble".  Visitors would pay a subscription to become a member of the library for the season, and would write their names in a visitors' book.  By doing so they would inform other visitors of their presence in Brighton, the length of their stay and where they were staying, facilitating social interaction.  By the 1760s, Brighton's Master of Ceremonies also consulted the visitors' books from the various libraries to find out who was staying in the town and make contact with them.  From the 1770s, when speculators built permanent theatres in the town, the libraries also sold tickets for performances, for which they received a commission.
  The first true library in Brighton opened in or before 1760 on the Steine (now Old Steine), although a bookshop existed from 1759 on East Street.  Baker's Library was the first building erected on the east side of the Steine: it stood on the south corner of the present St James's Street, where St James's Mansions stand now.  Its proprietor was Mr E. Baker of Tunbridge Wells, another 18th-century resort town.  A small wooden building with a veranda and an attached rotunda for musicians to perform in, "it was more like a club" than a modern library: its other features included billiards tables.  It was enlarged in 1806, necessitating the demolition of the original building.
  By the end of the 1760s a second library had opened, also named after its proprietor. Originally called Thomas's Library after its proprietor R. Thomas, it was also known as Brighthelmston Circulating Library.  Later, following a change of proprietor, it was known as Miss Widgett's Library and was described by author Fanny Burney, a regular visitor to Brighton in the late 18th century: her journals made reference to "Widget  [sic] the milliner and librarywoman".  Also a timber building, it rose to two storeys and was fronted with a colonnade of Doric columns.  Brighton's post office was here for about 20 years until 1803.  Both libraries are shown in an engraving produced in 1778, in which Baker's Library stands alone on the east side of the open ground of the Steine.  Thomas's Library was on the southwest side of the Steine near the present Royal York Hotel.  Neither library survived beyond the 1820s.
  Development soon spread eastwards along the East Cliff, and one of the first buildings there was Donaldson and Wilkes' Library (1798).  This later took the name Tuppen and Walkers' Library.  It occupied a site between Charles Street and Manchester Street.  Donaldson became the Prince of Wales's official librarian and bookseller in 1806.  Other contemporary libraries situated along the East Cliff were the New Steine Library, Pollard's on Marine Parade and Parsons' on the same road.  The Royal Marine Library, meanwhile, faced the Chain Pier and kept telescopes for visitors to look out to sea.  The focal point for these early libraries, though, remained the Steine, North Street and the square that linked them, Castle Square.  In this area were the Castle Square Circulating Library; Eber's; Minerva; Folthorp's; Large's; Loder's; and Wright and Son's Royal Colonnade Library, Music Saloon and Reading Rooms.  Loder's Library specialised in scientific publications and had 20,000 volumes, and Wright and Son stocked 8,000.  It also kept national newspapers and British and foreign journals and periodicals.  Raggett's Subscription House stood opposite Baker's Library on the north side of St James's Street and was a similar institution.  Several of these libraries struggled fina
caption: In this view of the east side of Old Steine, Baker's Library occupied the site of the brick building in the foreground, while the site of Thomas's Library is out of shot to the right.
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