Bishopsgate Library

Bishopsgate Library is an independent, charity-funded library located within the Bishopsgate Institute in the City of London.

Description

The library's particular strengths include printed and archive material on London, freethought and the labour movement, developed by Charles Goss, librarian from 1897 to 1941. The London Collection includes books, directories, maps and visual material relating especially to the East End of London.

The George Howell Collection is an important library of books and pamphlets covering many of the political and economic issues of the late 19th century, including early trade union reports. Howell's own correspondence and papers form part of this collection. The library also holds the archives of the London Co-operative Society.

Archives of other individuals include George Jacob Holyoake (1817–1906), secularist and early Co-operative Movement activist; Charles Bradlaugh (1833–1891), politician and founder of the National Secular Society; and the cultural historian and local resident Raphael Samuel (1934–1996).

Bishopsgate

Coordinates: 51°30′59″N 0°04′53″W / 51.5163°N 0.08145°W / 51.5163; -0.08145

Bishopsgate is one of the 25 wards of the City of London and also the name of a major road (part of the A10) between Gracechurch Street and Norton Folgate in the northeast corner of London's main financial district. Bishopsgate is named after one of the original eight gates in the London Wall. The site of this former gate is marked by a stone bishop's mitre, fixed high upon a building located at Bishopsgate's junction with Wormwood Street, by the gardens there and facing the Heron Tower.

Although tens of thousands of people commute to and work in the ward, it has a resident population of only 222 (2011).

Ward geography

The ward (which is large by City standards) is bounded by Worship Street to the north, where the edge of the City meets the boroughs of Islington and Hackney. It neighbours Portsoken ward and the borough of Tower Hamlets in the east. The western boundary is formed by Old Broad Street and Broad Street ward itself. Bishopsgate also bounds the wards of Aldgate (southeast), Coleman Street (west), Cornhill (southwest) and Lime Street (south). Bishopsgate ward straddles the (now former) line of the Wall and the old gate and is often (even today) divided into "Within" and "Without" parts, with a deputy (alderman) appointed for each part.

Bishopsgate (disambiguation)

Bishopsgate was a gate in the City wall of London.

It gives its name to:

Other uses

Heron Tower

Coordinates: 51°30′58″N 0°4′51″W / 51.51611°N 0.08083°W / 51.51611; -0.08083

The Heron Tower (officially 110 Bishopsgate) is a commercial skyscraper in London. It stands 230 metres (755 ft) tall including its 28-metre (92 ft) mast (202 metres (663 ft) excluding the mast) making it the tallest building in the City of London financial district and the third tallest in Greater London and the United Kingdom, after the Shard in Southwark and One Canada Square at Canary Wharf. The Heron Tower is located on Bishopsgate and is bordered by Camomile Street, Outwich Street and Houndsditch.

Construction of the building started in 2007 and was completed in 2011. It is owned by Heron International and is generally known as the Heron Tower, though following a naming dispute in 2014 involving the tenant Salesforce.com the City of London ruled in favour of the property being officially named 110 Bishopsgate. The tower initially struggled to attract tenants in the depths of the Great Recession, but is now fully let.