Slowly discovering the Lit & Phil in Newcastle. Here again, is a *proper* library. The only other I’ve found recently is the Bishopgate’s Institute in London.

The Lit & Phil has the primary function of encouraging people to read books. No gimmicks, no internet (that I saw). Whole shelves of histories about the northern miners, ship building, biography, county histories and so on. Here is the detail of skirmishes in small villages during the civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians; here is the detail of miners songs, customs and cultures.

The Lit & Phil will slowly reveal it’s full beauty and collected knowledge only over time. But what I did notice as I was walking around, looking at the shelves (and this is so much more satisfying than ‘browsing’ an online catalogue)…was that everyone had tea and biscuits. Yes; tea and biscuits. There’s a small kitchen area and library users can have a cup of tea or coffee or a flask.