A red brick building designed for one of the UK's oldest libraries will be the first new addition to Lambeth Palace – the historic home of the Archbishop of Canterbury – in almost two centuries.London studio Wright & Wright Architects has revealed its plan for the new home of the Lambeth Palace Library, which has had a publicly accessible collection since 1610.
The building will occupy a site at the north end of Lambeth Palace gardens on the south bank of the Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament, in the grounds of the heritage-protected palace that has been home to the Archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century.The library, which holds the second-largest collection of religious texts in central Europe after the Vatican and is the main archive for the Church of England, is currently split across multiple buildings.Wright & Wright won a competition last year to design the new building, and unveiled its plans this week.
