Closed on Saturday 7th December due to Storm Darragh
On Saturday 7th December, the library will be closed, and the Christmas Party postponed, due to Storm Darragh.
We will re-open as usual on Tuesday 10th December.
Christmas Holidays
The Morrab Library will be closing for the Christmas break on Saturday 21st December, at 4pm, so please do pop in before then to borrow your Christmas reading. We will reopen at 10am on Thursday 2nd January.
We wish you a very happy Christmas!
The Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2024 winners have now been announced!
The Morrab Library and The Myner Trust are delighted to announce the winners of the international Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2024.
The prize winners were announced by the competition judges at an awards ceremony which took place at The Exchange in Penzance on Saturday 26th October, in front of an audience of fellow shortlisted poets, the judges and sponsors, and Library members. You can read the winning poems here and read about the children’s competition winners here.
A huge thank you to everyone who has entered our poetry competition this year!
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A rich resource for research, or a place to borrow the latest novel.
The 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. The Morrab Library is a registered charity and depends on the support and generosity of our library community.
We are open Tuesday – Saturday 10am-4pm.
If you would like to support the work of The Morrab Library you can donate by clicking the button below.
Latest news
The Morrab Library Calendar 2025
This year, our photo archive team have produced a beautiful calendar using photographs from our historic collection featuring the people of Penwith, including this photo for July of the True Love boat built by Mr Ellis on Camberwell Street in 1906. The calendar is...
Christmas Cards 2024
Our new range of Christmas cards are now available to purchase from The Morrab Library. This year, there are five new card designs, capturing various views and inspirations of the library from a number of different perspectives. Single cards – £1.50 eachThree cards of...
Reading List | Wilkie Collins
Every month at The Morrab Library we host talks in the Reading Room for library members and non-members alike. The programme is as eclectic as the Library’s collection – from stories of standing stones to the Bumblebees of Cornwall – and meander through Literature,...
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.
If you like books, if you like history, if you like beautiful houses, if you like hidden treasures, if you like people, if you like peace, you will LOVE Morrab. In fact, if you are alive, you will love it there.
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.