Heythrop Library

The Heythrop Library is a philosophy and theological library in London, England. The library was part of University of London when it functioned as the closed Heythrop College library. The library still operates independently of the closed college. Since 2018, the library is an affiliated library of the Senate House Library, which means that it shares the library management system and database with the bigger library.

The library has been serving the Jesuit community in the United Kingdom, with The Telegraph calling it "one of the oldest and most important libraries of theological and philosophical books in the UK".

Since 2019, its reading room has been housed at the London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, Mayfair, London and several off-site storage facilities. Most collection items can also be made available to members of the Senate House Library at their building in Bloomsbury.

The library is open to "anyone with a serious interest in theology or philosophy and the related academic disciplines represented in the collection", with different membership options available (from "free" to an annual charge). Current HE students, Jesuits and other Religious, as well as those unemployed or on low wages might be able to benefit from free membership. The Library continues to provide historic as well as most-current research, in print, to those in training for ministry in the Catholic and other Christian churches and of the wider academic community. It also supports those engaged in programmes at the London Jesuit Centre.

The library is a member of ABTAPL (the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries).

History
Some of the collection of today's Heythrop Library dates back to 1614, when the Jesuits founded a college in Leuven, for educating future Jesuit priests preparing for work in what was then the English mission. The collection was later at St Bueno's College, where it was used by Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Heythrop College opened in 1926 in Oxfordshire, and became a college of the University of London in 1970, closing in 2019. Since 2019 its library has continued to serve students and researchers, its collection now available through Senate House Library and a reading room at the London Jesuit Centre; over 700 incunabula and rare books of the Heythrop College Library are housed at Campion Hall, Oxford.

Collection
The library holds over 213,000 volumes, though the reading room at Mount Street only contains 7,000 volumes plus the latest issues of journals the library subscribes to. The collection focuses on material in theology, philosophy and some allied disciplines; with particular strong holdings in (Roman Catholic and) Christian theology, philosophy and spirituality (especially relating to Ignatian Spirituality) and the Society of Jesus). In the 1980s the Heythrop Library also housed books from the Linacre Centre Library collection.