# Bromley House Library > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bromley_House_Library > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Bromley_House_Library.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromley_House_Library > Source revision: 1323177378 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Bromley House Library** (originally the **Nottingham Subscription Library**) is a [subscription library](/source/Subscription_library) in [Nottingham](/source/Nottingham), England. ## Premises The library is situated in Bromley House, a Georgian townhouse in [Nottingham city centre](/source/Nottingham_city_centre). The building is [Grade II* listed](/source/Grade_II*_listed)[1][2] and retains many original features. It was built in 1752 as his [town house](/source/Townhouse_(Great_Britain)) by [Sir George Smith, 1st Baronet](/source/Sir_George_Smith,_1st_Baronet) (1714–1769) of Stoke Hall, [East Stoke](/source/East_Stoke,_Nottinghamshire), Nottinghamshire, a grandson of the founder of [Smith's Bank](/source/Smith's_Bank) in Nottingham, the oldest known provincial bank in the United Kingdom. He used part as an office for transacting his lucrative business as Collector of the Land Tax.[3] In 1929 [Evans, Clark and Woollatt](/source/Evans,_Clark_and_Woollatt) added a new doorway and frontage, allowing the ground floor to be converted for retail use.[4] In the first-floor 'Standfast Library' is a [meridian line](/source/Sundial#Meridian_lines), dating from 1836 and used to set clocks to noon 'local' time in the days before [railway time](/source/Railway_time) or [Greenwich Mean Time](/source/Greenwich_Mean_Time) was introduced as the British standard. The [longcase clock](/source/Longcase_clock) in the room is still set to Nottingham time, 4 minutes and 33 seconds behind Greenwich. In the attics, Alfred Barber opened the first photographic studio in the Midlands on 2 October 1841.[5] On 1 April 2019, a major refurbishment project was started comprising a new roof, sympathetically restored attic rooms and essential internal repairs partially funded by a grant from Historic England East Midlands.[6] The refurbished roof was completed in October 2019.[7] ## History The Nottingham Subscription Library was founded on 1 April 1816 at Carlton Street, in the [Hockley](/source/Hockley,_Nottingham) area of the city.[8][9] In April 1820, Bromley House was offered for sale by auction and purchased by the library for £2,750 (). The library moved in during 1821.[10] In the 19th century the library had around one hundred subscribers, including [George Green](/source/George_Green_(mathematician)) and [Edward Bromhead](/source/Edward_Bromhead). Historically, the first name on the list of subscribers was the [Duke of Newcastle](/source/Henry_Pelham-Clinton,_4th_Duke_of_Newcastle) as [Lord Lieutenant](/source/Lord_Lieutenant_of_Nottinghamshire) of the county. ## Library services As of April 2018, the library had 1,638 members who paid an annual subscription.[11] Items on loan are still recorded using a manual ledger system where each member has their own page. The library has a stock of just under 50,000 books (expanding by 700–800 each year) which includes a selection of interest to local historians, and a wide selection of 19th and 20th-century novels. It also holds [audiobooks](/source/Audiobook) and CDs. The [Heritage Lottery Fund](/source/Heritage_Lottery_Fund) contributed towards a project to create the library's computer catalogue 'Bromcat'. This involved a team of staff and volunteers [cataloguing](/source/Cataloging) the entire contents over a two-year period, completing the work in 2013. ## Librarians (1816–1926) - William Hardy 1816–1819 - Valentine Kirk 1819–1820 - James Archer 1820–1834 - John Walton 1834–1857 - Count Ubaldo Marioni 1857–1865 - John Cummings Banwell 1867–1893 - J William Moore 1893–1899 - Arthur Lineker 1899–1926[12] ## See also - [Grade II* listed buildings in Nottinghamshire](/source/Grade_II*_listed_buildings_in_Nottinghamshire) - [Listed buildings in Nottingham (Bridge ward)](/source/Listed_buildings_in_Nottingham_(Bridge_ward)) ## References 1. Shoker, Sandish (10 April 2016). ["The fall and rise of subscription libraries"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-35831853). *[BBC News Online](/source/BBC_News_Online)*. Retrieved 4 August 2018. 1. White, Ted, ["Smiths who lived at Bromley House - Draft"](https://www.academia.edu/25554395), *Academia*, – via www.academia.edu 1. Harwood, Elain (1979). *Pevsner Architectural Guides. Nottinghamshire*. Yale University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0140710027. 1. Heathcote, Pauline & Heathcote, Bernard (2002). *A faithful likeness: the first photographic portrait studios in the British Isles, 1841 to 1855*. [Lowdham](/source/Lowdham): [self-published](/source/Self-publishing). ISBN 0954193407. 1. Reid, Ben (16 March 2019). ["Roof of Nottingham's 'secret' historic library will finally be repaired"](https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/roof-nottinghams-secret-historic-library-2653377). *Nottinghamshire Live* 1. ["A Final View of the New Roof"](https://bromleyhouse.org/a-final-view-of-the-new-roof/). 16 October 2019. 1. "Members at the heart of a thriving library". *Chad*, 16 April 2014, p.70. Accessed 9 June 2024 1. ["Bromley House Library, One Hundred Years Old To-Day."](http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19160401/017/0002). *[Nottingham Evening Post](/source/Nottingham_Post)*. 1 April 1916. Retrieved 9 September 2016. – via [British Newspaper Archive](/source/British_Newspaper_Archive) 1. '*Proceedings of the Library Committee, 1816 to 1830' (Bromley House Library Minute Book One)*. Bromley House Library. 1830. 1. ["Bromley House Library Annual Report and Unaudited Financial Statements for the Year Ended 31 March 2018"](https://www.bromleyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Bromley-House-accounts-YE-31.03.2018-1.pdf). Bromley House Library. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190203090527/https://www.bromleyhouse.org//wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Bromley-House-accounts-YE-31.03.2018-1.pdf) 3 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 13 August 2022. 1. ["Bromley House Library Librarians 1819–1927"](https://www.bromleyhouse.org/index.php/2013-08-25-15-54-46/our-history). Bromley House Library. 25 August 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2016. ## Further reading - Corbett, Jane Y. (1991). *Bromley House 1752–1991: four essays celebrating the 175th anniversary of the foundation of The Nottingham Subscription Library*. Nottingham Subscription Library. ISBN 0-9517499-0-0. ## External links - [Official website](https://bromleyhouse.org/) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bromley House Library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromley_House_Library) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromley_House_Library?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.