library
Barbara Weiss Architects, 2011
29 Russell Square, WC1B 5DP
PLEASE NOTE: Our internal lift is currently out of order. We apologise for any inconvenience. The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust. Visit to view our latest exhibition 'Fred Kormis: Sculpting the Twentieth Century'.
Russell Square, Goodge Street, Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street
Euston, King's Cross
59, 68, 168, 188
The environment will be a quiet exhibition space and Reading Room. The Tours will be in the Archive in the basement which is a small space.
Founded in 1933 by Dr. Alfred Wiener, the Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest Holocaust memorial institution. It was initially set up to collect and disseminate information about events happening in Nazi Germany.
Having moved to London in 1939, Dr Wiener’s collection proved invaluable, first to the British government and later, after the War, to the UN War crimes commission. Now a forum for research and scholarly debate, the Library is also known for gathering and compiling thousands of eyewitness accounts.
The Library’s current holdings number approximately 65,000 books and pamphlets, as well as periodicals, unpublished memoirs, photographs, press cuttings, and rare material obtained from all over the world.
In 2010 the Library acquired from Birkbeck, University of London, a 99-year lease on a substantial but dilapidated listed Georgian building, located at 29 Russell Square, in the heart of Bloomsbury. This has now been carefully refurbished and converted by Barbara Weiss Architects, to accommodate the collection in elegant, accessible, and climate controlled conditions – part of a £5m project intended to prepare the Library to play a more prominent role in British and international academic life.
The move is very much seen by the Library as the foundation for ensuring the appropriate conditions for its future work in scholarship, public policy and education relating to the study of the Holocaust, antisemitism and comparative genocide.
Having started its existence as an information service to counteract Nazi propaganda, the Library is now aiming at helping new and existing audiences to engage fully with the collections; a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery fund is specifically destined for outreach programmes, such as the main exhibition in the ground floor reception.
Our current exhibition 'Fred Kormis: Sculpting the Twentieth Century' surveys the life and career of Jewish émigré sculptor Fred Kormis and reunites some of the most important of his diverse works, from the woodcut prints he produced in a Prisoner of War camp, to the medallions he made of leading figures in British life, as well as some of his larger sculptural works, which include the first memorial in Britain to the victims of Nazi concentration camps.
Architect: Barbara Weiss Architects Ltd Project manager and QS: Cluttons LLP Structural Engineer: Bartons Engineers Ltd Services Engineer: Peter Deer and Associates Main Contractor: BW Interiors Ltd
For more info on this building visit AJ Buildings Library http://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/4945
Drop in / Guided tour
community/cultural, historical house, concert/performance space, event
The independent cultural centre Pushkin House will contribute to this year's Open House Festival through a programme of events and community initiatives at its Grade-II listed building in Bloomsbury Square.
Henry Flitcroft, 1744
Drop in / Guided tour
community/cultural, library, museum, art in the public realm, concert/performance space, education
Grade II-listed Georgian domestic building c.1760, formerly part of Bedford Estate. Interior refurbished 1924-5 to form lecture hall (restored 2014), library, bookshop and offices. Oak woodwork and green Doulton tiles line the staircase.
Unknown, 1760
