For $80 a Night, Bibliophiles Can Sleep at This Library

With all the Gladstone Library's 250K books
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2017 4:49 PM CST
This Might Be the World's Only Library-Hotel
Gladstone's Library is located just across the Welsh border in the village of Hawarden, about 200 miles northwest of London.   (Gladstone's Library)

Book lovers rejoice: There exists in this world a library that welcomes visitors hoping to stay the night. Gladstone's Library, located about 200 miles northwest of London in the quaint village of Hawarden in Wales, is named after former British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was himself a bibliophile and wanted his own collection to remain in Wales and available to the public, reports the Telegraph. In fact, 32,000 of the library's 250,000-plus books are from Gladstone's own collection, and the library has been residential since it opened in 1904, not long after Gladstone's death.

The residential quarters feature 26 rooms, all sans TVs—"because you didn't come all the way to a library just to watch TV," notes Conde Nast Traveler, and the library says this is a place to "sleep with books." For a room that costs about $80 a night, guests enjoy extended access to the library all the way until 10pm (it closes to the public at 5pm). Several reading rooms feature large sofas, desks, Persian rugs, fireplaces, an honesty bar, and a kitchen that works up a full-on Sunday roast. The library is run by Gladstone's family and self-funded, so the prices on rooms and meals are intentionally low with his mission of ready access to books in mind. In recent years, Gladstone's has become a hot spot for writers (there's even one in residence), and guests visit from all over the world. (The world's oldest library is reopening in Morocco.)

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