The London Library is a private subscription-based lending library which was founded in 1841 by Thomas Carlyle.

Many famous writers frequented the institution, from Charles Darwin, T S Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens and finally Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.

In 2008 upon the publication of Stoker’s private notes, librarians discovered that Stoker was a serial library book defiler – with some 25 library books having his written notes in them.