Have you ever noticed the entrance to the Portico Library & Gallery on the Charlotte Street side of The Bank pub on Mosley Street?

I have, and I’ve always wondered what kind of library could exist above such a faceless bar, and how it still exists.

Turns out this year is its bicentennial year and, by a stroke of luck, I got a chance to visit yesterday.

At the top of half a dozen flights of stairs it was like stepping back into Victorian times. In a medium-sized square room every wall was lined with old books, as it was in these old photos:

The ground floor of this Neo-Classical building was let to the Bank of Athens in the 1920s when a glass dome designed by the aptly-named Joseph Sunlight was used as a partition:

The dome disappeared by 1987 – sold to an American for £500 – and a solid floor replaced it. Here’s how the library looks these days:

Similar to the private subscription basis by which it was initially funded, the library’s mainly 19th century books can today be borrowed for a fee by members and researchers.

I saw sections for ‘biographies’ and ‘voyages’ while I was there, and the majority of the books looked to be bound by string because of their age.

The library now hosts galleries and regular events, and it even has a small cafeteria. You can also hire it out for private fuctions.

See the library’s website for more information.