What is Gladstone's Library?

Gladstone’s Library is a residential library in Hawarden, North Wales, and is the UK’s only prime-ministerial library. It was founded by William Ewart Gladstone in 1896 ‘for the purposes of learning, education, literature, and instruction’ and to make his collection of 20,000 books accessible to others, and this vision continues at its heart. The current building was designed by John Douglas, and constructed as the national memorial to Gladstone in 1902, shortly after his death.

What do we hold?

Gladstone’s books now form the Foundation Collection, and many of the volumes contain traces of their former owner: bookplates, inscriptions, annotations. Alongside this nineteenth-century special collection, the library holds a contemporary research collection of 52,000 books. This circulating collection focuses on areas of Gladstonian interest, particularly history and politics, literature, and theology. It also includes secondary literature for the study of Gladstone and his time. The library has further accumulated several other special collections including around 6000 rare books printed before 1800, items relating to the Franciscans, Cowley Fathers, and the history of technology, the collections of prominent theologians such as Don Cupitt, John Robinson and David Sheppard, as well as large numbers of pamphlets and ephemera.

Gladstone's Library's Archives compliment the library’s collection of books. They most notably hold the Glynne-Gladstone Archive, which contains Gladstone’s personal correspondence and papers, as well as the records of his immediate family. This includes the plantation records of his father, Sir John Gladstone. Other nineteenth-century archives that are held include the Anne Ramsden Bennett Archive, and Sir Stephen Glynne’s Church Notes. The library also holds many contemporary archives. These include the records of the Detection Club and the Crime Writers’ Association, as well as those of prominent theologians and figures within the Churches of England and Wales including Don Cupitt, John Robinson, Jim Cotter, Eric James, Anthony Freeman, John Moorman, and Charles Alfred Howell Green. The archives also contain the library’s own institutional records from the foundation of the library to the present day.

Digital catalogue

This digital catalogue was created during the Gladstone’s Writing project, which was kindly funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York . This project digitised several hundred of Gladstone’s most annotated books, and thousands of his correspondence and papers.

Find out more

To visit the library’s website, click here.

If you would like to stay at the library, accommodation can be booked online here, or by calling +44 (0)1244 532350.

Support the library

Gladstone’s Library is a charity that is reliant on donations to maintain its grade-I listed building, look after its collections, and make its Reading Rooms freely accessible to all. If you have benefited from this resource and would like to support future digitisation work and the conservation of the collections shown, please consider making a one-off donation to Gladstone’s Library or signing up as a regular donor by clicking here.