Henry Hare (1861-1921), the architect who designed the new Westminster buildings when the College moved to Cambridge in 1899, designed many libraries, including those in Hackney, Hammersmith, Fulham, and Wolverhampton. He also designed the town halls in Oxford and Crewe and Bangor University. So it seems natural that the Library at Westminster is the biggest space in the College, with a queen-post trussed roof and two rows of windows on each side. This, together with its south-facing aspect, make the Library a very light and pleasant space.

The gates and screen across the Library mark where the Chapel used to be in 1899. A new Chapel was built after the First World War, between the residential wing and the kitchen. The Library’s walls are oak panelled. The shelves are oak, too, thanks to gifts from William Pirrie Sinclair of Liverpool, and Thomas Rankine of Clapton, London. They are commemorated in two panels to the left of the doors, inlaid with mother of pearl, ebony and ivory. The original readers’ tables have been replaced by modern study carrels, but the rest of this end of the room is essentially as it would have been in 1900.