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A rich resource for research, or a place to borrow the latest novel.
Morrab Library is an independent library established in 1818, situated in the beautiful Morrab Gardens in Penzance, Cornwall. We hold over 70,000 books on floor-to-ceiling shelves as well as archives and a rich photographic collection. The library contains a wide range of both fiction and non-fiction books in the rambling rooms of a delightful Victorian building.
We are open Tuesday – Saturday 10am-4pm.
Latest news
A remarkable discovery in our Archive collection
In the midst of lockdown over 2020 and 2021, Morrab Library was contacted by Alison Shell, Professor of Early Modern Studies at University College London. She had come across a brief citation to an item in our Archive collection, created by the late John Simmonds,...
Reflections from COP26
Alison Meaton is a Penwith resident, a retired primary school teacher, a Quaker and part of Extinction Rebellion West Cornwall. She is also a new member of Morrab Library. In late October 2021 she travelled up to Glasgow for COP26 to be part of the surge of people...
Our House – the story of Morrab House 1841 – 1900.
Among the many fascinating items displayed inside the Morrab Library is a bill of sale dated 1887, detailing the accommodation offered at Morrab House. Some of the rooms and stairways are easy to identify, some not, and there seems to have been a certain amount of...
If there is an afterlife, I very much hope that those good enough in this one might be rewarded with an exact replica of the Morrab Library – to sit out eternity browsing its shelves, reading in its chairs, and looking out of its high windows.
Whether you’re an impassioned bibliophile or just someone who loves a good read, the Morrab is for you: a Cornish treasure house, a meeting place for like-minded souls, and a vibrant forum for contemporary writing.
Formally known, in those days, as the Penzance Library, the elegant house in its beautiful garden had a welcoming atmosphere and BOOKS – rooms full of them, in shelves floor to ceiling, on every topic I could possibly want to read about…it’s…a treasure house, an island of civilization and tranquility in an ever faster and more furious world.