An estimate for the workmanship and stuff for the fitting up [of] the Library to sett up the King’s bookes in
Cambridge, 1716

The King’s Books needed a suitably dignified home, and all haste was made to provide them with such. The Law School was settled upon as the suitable location, and work began quickly to create new windows in the space and to strengthen the floors. Book shelves (‘classes’) were constructed by local joiner John Austin. As the photographs elsewhere within this exhibition theme show, his work was simple and elegant; unfortunately, it was also insufficient for the sheer number of books, and in the 1730s the Library expanded permanently into the old Regent House.

UA CUR.31.2.28