With more than 50,000 books, high ceilings, intricate architecture and garden space, staff at Nottingham's oldest independent library with a "different sort of feel" have spoken about their aims. They want to reach out to a wider demographic - and promote popular books at the library and the history behind some of the rooms.
Hidden on Angel Row between a charity shop and newsagent stands Bromley House Library. Built in 1752, Bromley House became a subscription library in 1816.
Before this, the library was a private house. In a building full of twists and turns with its long case clocks, the library currently has 1,700 members - some for the past 50 years.
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With an annual payment of £132, the library mainly relies on subscriptions to keep afloat. Matt Dolman, the library's membership and engagement manager, spoke about some of the famous, historical figures who were once members.
He said: "There's been a range of people connected with the city, mostly historical, who have been members. We've had George Green, mathematician and philosopher, as a member. Stanley Middleton was the president until '92 and now the president is Ann Treneman."
Ms Treneman is a journalist who currently works for The Times newspaper. Matt added: "We had the Duke of Gloucester visit two years ago and he was really interested in the architecture. The fact that this building was a private house is great because it still feels cosy and intimate.
"Believe it or not, people have come just to take pictures of the spiral staircase. This isn't a hush, hush library - we do have quiet areas but equally people do sit and chat and we have library groups. There's this misconception that the library's an intimidating space but it's not, everyone's really friendly."
Some of the library groups include a writing group, a poetry group and a languages group. The library also has a children's room, with a Narnia-like door that leads to somewhere else.
Other rooms in the library include the Ellen Harrington room - she was once a librarian at the library. The room stores history, natural science and philosophy books.
Matt added: "Currently, one of our most popular authors is Elly Griffiths. She was our most borrowed author last year. Richard Osman is also popular as well. People still love print and books - we do newspapers and periodicals and journals, they're all popular."
Matt added that when a film is based on a book, like the Queen's Gambit, that book is often borrowed while it is trending. Matt said: "The library has a different sort of feel and people still go 'I didn't know this was here, crikey, I walk past it all the time'."
Mike McCambridge is communications officer for Bromley House. He said: "We're trying to reach out to different demographics in different ways like through social media. Our members currently are mostly females which is a complete change to what it was before."
He added: "We're increasingly working with charities, we're working with Black poetry groups and refugees. The library has no funding so we're dependent on subscriptions. During coronavirus, we developed a bookmobile, which we still do to usually the NG1-NG16 postcodes.
"We have a collection of more than 50,000 books. We have a time capsule of different books that have represented different interests throughout the times."
Over the next few years, Bromley House has plans to fundraise for the restoration of the gardens. As the city centre doesn't have "much green space", according to Matt, the gardens are a "safe haven".
To learn more about Bromley House or to become a member, visit https://bromleyhouse.org/
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