Layton's Library: A Book Group

To discuss 17th and 18th century books

The exhibition Layton’s Library: A Curious Collection was so popular with visitors since opening in January that a spin-off book group has been formed which will meet in Chiswick Library in Dukes Avenue.

The meetings will discuss some of the best known writings of the 17th and 18th centuries and the topic for the next meeting, (12.30-2 pm) on Thursday, April 7th, is 'Tackling The World'. Other meetings will be held on May 5th and 2nd June.

The group has been set up by local volunteers to raise awareness of the Thomas Layton library collection.

Participation is free, though space is limited. If you would like to go please email sarah@laytoncollection.org.

The exhibition is currently on show at Hogarth’s House, Chiswick, and admission is free. Visitors are welcome from Tuesday to Sunday, between the hours of 12 noon to 5pm, until 3 April. From 30 April 2016, some of the exhibition will be on show at Boston Manor House in Brentford, where a range of workshops for adults and children are planned during the summer months.

Thomas Layton (born in 1819, died 1911) lived for the majority of his life on Kew Bridge Road in Brentford, West London. He was a lighterman, a coal merchant, a churchwarden, a member of the Burial Board and a Poor Law Guardian but, above all, he was a “collector”. During the course of his life he built up an enormous and intriguing collection of ‘every conceivable thing that can be found in an antique store’, including maps, prints, spears, swords, tokens, medals and coins, but his plans to endow a museum and library in Brentford ran into difficulties. Many of his antiquities are on public display in the Museum of London.

However, by far the largest element of his collection – his extraordinary collection of books – has remained relatively unknown and little used.

The Layton Collection web site has brought many of the elements together as a “virtual museum”.

April 1, 2016