Reading Rooms and Study Spaces
Senate House Library offers individual and group study areas with access to WiFi and power. Our study spaces provide both silent study areas, and group working spaces.
Find your way around
Use the to help find your way around Senate House and the Library. It covers the lower ground floor to floor 7 of Senate House.
You can use it to find your way to collection areas, reading rooms, group study spaces, lifts and stairs, service points, scanner/printers, the accessibility suite, fire refuge points and toilets.
Using the study spaces
The Library has four floors available for study and a combined total of 539 seats with most floors and Library spaces accessible by the Library lift on the 4th floor.
On the 4th floor, the Goldsmiths reading room, Middlesex South and Middlesex North offer spacious study areas with original 1930s architecture and furniture. The area in the old Service Hall offers flexible seating options for collaborative study or working individually in a relaxed space. The North reading room is a relaxed area with comfortable chairs and sofas. Modern study spaces are located on floors 5, 6 and 7 within the collections. Most desks have plug sockets and individual lights.
Hot or cold drinks in closed containers may be brought into the Library. Cold food and snacks are allowed in the ‘food and drink’ area on the 4th floor.
The Special Collections reading room holds the palaeography and book studies material and has spaces for consulting Special Collections and archive material. Items and desk space must be booked in advance.
No food or drink, including bottled water, is permitted in this reading room. Coats and bags should be placed in the lockers provided and only pencils are allowed. This is to protect the items.
As a member of Senate House Library you have access to BLOOM@Senate House, a unique area on the lower ground floor for individual study and collaborative working with a variety of comfortable breakout spaces and a café which make it easy to socialise, study together and share ideas.
Bloom@Senate House is open Monday to Friday, 08:00 – 18:00
The Library has seven group study rooms available for Library members with a capacity of 6-10 people.
There are four bookable rooms located in BLOOM@Senate House with screens that can be connected to wirelessly. They are available between 8:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday.
There are three bookable rooms in the Library, located on the 5th floor in the South Reading room with no AV facilities. They are available during Library opening hours. The spaces are for working collaboratively in person or online and are not to be used for individual study or meetings.
Rooms are to be booked in advance and are available for three-hour slots.
Click here to .
The accessibility suite is a bookable room for Library members with a disability or dyslexia and for members who have an assistant. The room is fully accessible by lift to the 6th floor and has two electronically height adjustable tables with orthopaedic chairs, large screens and workstations.
Study carrels are located within Goldsmiths, Middlesex South and Middlesex North reading rooms. Carrels can be booked by Library members for a weekly fee of £17.50 in term time or £15.00 in vacation time. Carrels have a desk, seating and shelving for private study.
Click here to book a study carrel.
The room is a space for individual reflection or prayer and may be found at the top of the main Library staircase on the 6th floor, South. The room has a window overlooking Russell Square and two chairs. No booking is required, but please respect other users when using this room. A larger quiet room is located on the ground floor in room G32.
If you have any feedback or a suggestion on how we can improve this space, please email senatehouselibrary@london.ac.uk.
Floor 4
Book Studies and Palaeography | New acquisitions |
Dr Seng Tee Lee Centre | New acquisitions (gallery) |
Germanic Studies Library | NU Collection |
Goldsmiths' Reading Room | Service desk |
Membership Desk | Special Collections |
Music Collection | Toilets |
Floor 5
Art | Linguistics |
Classics | NYU Collection |
English | Philosophy |
Film, Media and Theatre | Psychology |
German | Romance Languages |
Floor 6
Accessibility suite | History |
Commonwealth Studies | Latin American Studies |
Geography | United States Studies |
Floor 7
Economics | Law |
Education | Politics |
Health Studies | Religion |
History of Science | Sociology |
Library regulations
Please show consideration to others when using the reading rooms and study spaces by following Library regulations