Since the late 1970s, an independent Friends’ group has supported The Women’s Library through funding acquisitions, digitisation and conservation projects, and by promoting its collections through, for example, its regular Talks programme. 

This timeline marks some key milestones in the history of the Library and of the Friends.

1926

The Women’s Library began its life in a converted pub at 35-37 Marsham Street, Westminster, as The Library of the London Society for Women’s Service (previously the London Society for Women’s Suffrage). It was formally inaugurated as a lending library with the appointment of Vera Douie as librarian in 1926, and it had two aims: to preserve the history of the women’s movement, and to provide a resource for newly enfranchised women to enter public life.

Women’s Service House, 35-37 Marsham Street, Westminster. LSE Archives
1924 TIMELINE (1)
1930

In the spring of 1930 the collection, now comprising some 2,000 volumes, was rehoused in a purpose-built library which formed part of new premises secured by the London Society for Women’s Service at 29 Marsham Street. In this decade the Library received its first archival items in the form of autograph letters (from the correspondence of Dame Millicent Fawcett) and it became known as The Millicent Fawcett Library.

Millicent Fawcett Library, 29 Marsham Street, Westminster. After 1929. LSE Archives
1929 (1)
1938

An endowment campaign was launched in early 1938 in an attempt to secure the long-term future of the Library which continued to expand in size and importance. In the face of wider economic crises across Europe the appeal was abandoned, but among the Library’s generous donors was Virginia Woolf who, from 1938 until her death in 1941, paid a monthly sum for the purchase of antiquarian or new books.

Virginia Woolf, Wikimedia Commons
Virginia-Woolf
1940

In October 1940 the Women’s Service House sustained bomb damage and the Library, which now comprised over 10,000 items, was relocated to various locations in Oxford. During the remaining years of the Second World War, repeated bomb damage rendered the Marsham Street building unfit for use and it was compulsorily purchased in 1947 by Westminster Council.

Extensive bomb and blast damage during the Blitz, Westminster, London 1940. Wikimedia Commons with permission from City of Westminster Archives Centre.
Blitz_Bomb_Damage
1949

The Library returned to London, but remained scattered across multiple locations (including the ‘Great Smith Street’ Public Library in Westminster, its most generous host) and there was little opportunity for expansion.

1953

The London Society for Women’s Service renamed itself as the Fawcett Society and the Library became The Fawcett Library. A Fawcett Library Trust was set up.

1957

The Library was rehomed at the Society’s new premises at 27 Wilfred Street, Westminster. The new Fawcett Library was inaugurated in April 1957 with the following objects: “The advancement and promotion of education and learning by the establishment of a library dealing with the interests, activities and achievements of women at all times and in all countries, and the advancement and promotion of education and learning by these means.”

Elizabeth Scott’s design for Fawcett House, 27 Wilfrid Street, Westminster. LSE Archives.
1957 - Fawcett House
1967

The Library’s rebranding in 1957 was followed by a period of consolidation and expansion, until the retirement in 1967 of its librarian Vera Douie after 41 years of devoted, skilled and resourceful management. New accessions were absorbed into its collections including the library and archive of the Josephine Butler Society received in 1956, and in 1965 an important acquisition was made by bidding at a public auction for the first time (Anon., Advice to the Women and Maids of London, 1678).

Vera Douie. LSE Digital Library. Reproduced with permission of Charlotte Gere.
Vera Douie
1971

A Friends of the Fawcett Library association was set up in 1971 with the aims of fostering public interest in the Library, attracting gifts of books and manuscripts, and promoting the conservation of material.

1977

By the late 1970s, the Fawcett Society found it could no longer sustain the costs of its Library and, after negotiations with several academic institutions, chose a bid from the City of London Polytechnic to rehouse the collections. In March 1977, the Library was moved to the basement of Calcutta House, Old Castle Street, Aldgate, under the management of Rita Pankhurst, chief librarian and daughter-in-law of Sylvia Pankhurst. David Doughan’s association with the Fawcett Library dates from 1977. For 23 years he served in various capacities as a Librarian, contributing with skill and imagination to its good functioning.

Fawcett Library in the basement of Calcutta House, Old Castle Street. LSE Archives.
1977 Fawcett Library
1979

The Friends of the Fawcett Library were formally constituted in January 1978, and acquired Charity status the following year on 24 January 1979. The organisation later morphed into The Friends of the Women’s Library as we are known today, when the Library itself was renamed in 2002.

1985

The Friends of the Fawcett Library launched an appeal to try to raise £1 million for specialist staff to look after the archival- and museum-quality items in the collection. The appeal was closed in 1990 with £33,000 raised.

The Fawcett Library in the mid-1980s. LSE Archives.
1985
1992

The City of London Polytechnic was subsumed into London Guildhall University, which became the Fawcett Library’s custodian.

1997

Following a ten-month closure of the Library from August 1994 due to flooding, a Heritage Lottery bid was developed with support from the Friends and submitted in 1997 by London Guildhall University for funding to rehouse the Fawcett Library as a new ‘National Library of Women’ in the former Wash Houses on Old Castle Street. A fund of £4.2 million was awarded in 1998 and a new Director, Antonia Byatt, was appointed in 2000.

Converted Wash Houses on Old Castle Street. Photo by Paul E. Smith from Wikimedia.
1997 Aldgate East building
2002

The Library formally opened under the new name of The Women’s Library in purpose-built premises on Old Castle Street, under the hosting of London Metropolitan University (which had merged with London Guildhall University in 2002). The Friends raised £50,000 for furniture and shelving in the new building which – along with its state of the art reading room – accommodated an exhibition-space, a small shop, and a designated place for Friends to meet.

Reading Room in The Women’s Library’s new premises on Old Castle Street. LSE Archives.
2002
2011

Following a “brilliant decade” (Liddington) of events and exhibitions at the Library’s new premises, along with community outreach projects, women’s-history walks, and other activities that raised the profile of its collections, “UNESCO Memory of the World” status was awarded to some of The Women’s Library’s suffrage items.

Documents from the Women's Library recognised by UNESCO and placed on their Memory of the World UK Register in 2011, were displayed between 27 February and 9 March 2012, in the Royal Gallery, House of Lords. Parliamentary copyright and reproduced with the permission of Parliament under the Creative Commons Licence
Woman's Suffrage UNESCO exhibition in the Royal Gallery, House of Lords, 2012
2014

In 2012, London Metropolitan University announced its inability to continue supporting The Women’s Library owing to the financial crisis, and bids were invited for a new host institution. The Friends spearheaded a public campaign to Save the Women’s Library, and a bid from the London School of Economics to take the collections (but not the building) was accepted with the Friends’ support. In January 2013 the Library relocated to Portugal Street, Westminster, and in 2014 formally opened as The Women’s Library at LSE, where it remains today.

The Women’s Library Reading Room at LSE. LSE Archives.
2013 TWL Reading room
2024

On 7 March, LSE Library and the Friends of the Women’s Library hosted an Open Evening to mark the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Library’s arrival at the London School of Economics.

The Women’s Library Reading Room at LSE, 10th Anniversary. LSE Archives.
2024LSE 10 year celebration (1)
1926

The Women’s Library began its life in a converted pub at 35-37 Marsham Street, Westminster, as The Library of the London Society for Women’s Service (previously the London Society for Women’s Suffrage). It was formally inaugurated as a lending library with the appointment of Vera Douie as librarian in 1926, and it had two aims: to preserve the history of the women’s movement, and to provide a resource for newly enfranchised women to enter public life.

Women’s Service House, 35-37 Marsham Street, Westminster. LSE Archives
1930

In the spring of 1930 the collection, now comprising some 2,000 volumes, was rehoused in a purpose-built library which formed part of new premises secured by the London Society for Women’s Service at 29 Marsham Street. In this decade the Library received its first archival items in the form of autograph letters (from the correspondence of Dame Millicent Fawcett) and it became known as The Millicent Fawcett Library.

Millicent Fawcett Library, 29 Marsham Street, Westminster. After 1929. LSE Archives
1938

An endowment campaign was launched in early 1938 in an attempt to secure the long-term future of the Library which continued to expand in size and importance. In the face of wider economic crises across Europe the appeal was abandoned, but among the Library’s generous donors was Virginia Woolf who, from 1938 until her death in 1941, paid a monthly sum for the purchase of antiquarian or new books.

Virginia Woolf, Wikimedia Commons
1940

In October 1940 the Women’s Service House sustained bomb damage and the Library, which now comprised over 10,000 items, was relocated to various locations in Oxford. During the remaining years of the Second World War, repeated bomb damage rendered the Marsham Street building unfit for use and it was compulsorily purchased in 1947 by Westminster Council.

Extensive bomb and blast damage during the Blitz, Westminster, London 1940. Wikimedia Commons with permission from City of Westminster Archives Centre.
1949

The Library returned to London, but remained scattered across multiple locations (including the ‘Great Smith Street’ Public Library in Westminster, its most generous host) and there was little opportunity for expansion.

1953

The London Society for Women’s Service renamed itself as the Fawcett Society and the Library became The Fawcett Library. A Fawcett Library Trust was set up.

1957

The Library was rehomed at the Society’s new premises at 27 Wilfred Street, Westminster. The new Fawcett Library was inaugurated in April 1957 with the following objects: “The advancement and promotion of education and learning by the establishment of a library dealing with the interests, activities and achievements of women at all times and in all countries, and the advancement and promotion of education and learning by these means.”

Elizabeth Scott’s design for Fawcett House, 27 Wilfrid Street, Westminster. LSE Archives.
1967

The Library’s rebranding in 1957 was followed by a period of consolidation and expansion, until the retirement in 1967 of its librarian Vera Douie after 41 years of devoted, skilled and resourceful management. New accessions were absorbed into its collections including the library and archive of the Josephine Butler Society received in 1956, and in 1965 an important acquisition was made by bidding at a public auction for the first time (Anon., Advice to the Women and Maids of London, 1678).

Vera Douie. LSE Digital Library. Reproduced with permission of Charlotte Gere.
1971

A Friends of the Fawcett Library association was set up in 1971 with the aims of fostering public interest in the Library, attracting gifts of books and manuscripts, and promoting the conservation of material.

1977

By the late 1970s, the Fawcett Society found it could no longer sustain the costs of its Library and, after negotiations with several academic institutions, chose a bid from the City of London Polytechnic to rehouse the collections. In March 1977, the Library was moved to the basement of Calcutta House, Old Castle Street, Aldgate, under the management of Rita Pankhurst, chief librarian and daughter-in-law of Sylvia Pankhurst. David Doughan’s association with the Fawcett Library dates from 1977. For 23 years he served in various capacities as a Librarian, contributing with skill and imagination to its good functioning.

Fawcett Library in the basement of Calcutta House, Old Castle Street. LSE Archives.
1979

The Friends of the Fawcett Library were formally constituted in January 1978, and acquired Charity status the following year on 24 January 1979. The organisation later morphed into The Friends of the Women’s Library as we are known today, when the Library itself was renamed in 2002.

1985

The Friends of the Fawcett Library launched an appeal to try to raise £1 million for specialist staff to look after the archival- and museum-quality items in the collection. The appeal was closed in 1990 with £33,000 raised.

The Fawcett Library in the mid-1980s. LSE Archives.
1992

The City of London Polytechnic was subsumed into London Guildhall University, which became the Fawcett Library’s custodian.

1997

Following a ten-month closure of the Library from August 1994 due to flooding, a Heritage Lottery bid was developed with support from the Friends and submitted in 1997 by London Guildhall University for funding to rehouse the Fawcett Library as a new ‘National Library of Women’ in the former Wash Houses on Old Castle Street. A fund of £4.2 million was awarded in 1998 and a new Director, Antonia Byatt, was appointed in 2000.

Converted Wash Houses on Old Castle Street. Photo by Paul E. Smith from Wikimedia.
2002

The Library formally opened under the new name of The Women’s Library in purpose-built premises on Old Castle Street, under the hosting of London Metropolitan University (which had merged with London Guildhall University in 2002). The Friends raised £50,000 for furniture and shelving in the new building which – along with its state of the art reading room – accommodated an exhibition-space, a small shop, and a designated place for Friends to meet.

Reading Room in The Women’s Library’s new premises on Old Castle Street. LSE Archives.
2011

Following a “brilliant decade” (Liddington) of events and exhibitions at the Library’s new premises, along with community outreach projects, women’s-history walks, and other activities that raised the profile of its collections, “UNESCO Memory of the World” status was awarded to some of The Women’s Library’s suffrage items.

Documents from the Women's Library recognised by UNESCO and placed on their Memory of the World UK Register in 2011, were displayed between 27 February and 9 March 2012, in the Royal Gallery, House of Lords. Parliamentary copyright and reproduced with the permission of Parliament under the Creative Commons Licence
2014

In 2012, London Metropolitan University announced its inability to continue supporting The Women’s Library owing to the financial crisis, and bids were invited for a new host institution. The Friends spearheaded a public campaign to Save the Women’s Library, and a bid from the London School of Economics to take the collections (but not the building) was accepted with the Friends’ support. In January 2013 the Library relocated to Portugal Street, Westminster, and in 2014 formally opened as The Women’s Library at LSE, where it remains today.

The Women’s Library Reading Room at LSE. LSE Archives.
2024

On 7 March, LSE Library and the Friends of the Women’s Library hosted an Open Evening to mark the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Library’s arrival at the London School of Economics.

The Women’s Library Reading Room at LSE, 10th Anniversary. LSE Archives.

Sources

Jane Grant, In the Steps of Exceptional Women: The Story of the Fawcett Society 1866-2016, London: Francis Boutle Publishers (2016), Chapter 7, ‘From small beginnings to world-class status: the growth of the Women’s Library’, 96-111.

Jill Liddington, ‘Fawcett Saga: Remembering the Women’s Library across Four Decades’, History Workshop Journal, 76 (2013): 267-280.

Gillian Murphy,  ‘The History of The Women’s Library’ (Link)

Rita Pankhurst, ‘Collection Development and Women’s Heritage: The Case of the Fawcett Library’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 10: 3 (1987): 225-239.