The building in which the Library is housed is as interesting as the Collection. The building itself is older than any of the books.
The current location of the Library within the Cathedral is on the first and second floors above the Chapel of St Thomas Becket on the north side of the Cathedral. This three storey part of the building dates from the 14th Century. The entrance door is up a short flight of wooden steps, near the two icons of St David’s mother St Non and St Justinian at the rear of the restored Shrine of St David. The two floors were restored and refitted as the Library in the 1950s. It had previously been the Chapter House and the Treasury and in the 18th and 19th Centuries was used as the Cathedral Grammar School.
There is a medieval fireplace with lamp stands, two stone window seats with stone canopies on the north side of the building and a piscina for washing hands.
For enquiries on research access to the Library collection, please email: library@stdavidscathedral.org.uk.
