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The Rare Books Room was specially designed to hold the school’s collection of rare and valuable books and manuscripts.

This collection of approximately 1,600 items including papyri from the 2^nd century BC, books donated by Samuel Pepys and others after the school burned down in the fire of 1666, and the original exercise book that Bentley, Solomons and Chesterton used for their first Clerihews.

We are able to display items from the collection and materials from the Archive thanks to the viewing window in the wall of the Rare Books Room. We also use our Treasures events to share more of this amazing collection.

The environment of the Rare Books Room is carefully managed. Because most of the collection has leather bindings we keep the temperature between 13°C and 19°C and the humidity around 45-50%. We also look for pests that might want to feed on the materials.