World's oldest Holocaust archive gets a bigger home - Wiener Library set to move to Russell Square

Published: 17 September 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

THE world’s oldest Holocaust archive, the Wiener Library, is moving from its Marylebone home.

The collection, started in 1933 and housing more than a million items, has outgrown its current home in Devonshire Street and will move to a renovated Georgian townhouse in Russell Square.

Barbara Weiss Architects are overseeing a £1.5million makeover, which will see the addition of four climate-controlled book stores in the basement to preserve archives. 

The building is due to completed by May 2011 and is expected to open in the summer. 

Anthony Spiro, chairman of trustees at the library, said: “The relocation is a unique opportunity to realise the potential of this extraordinary collection. It will remove many of the current barriers to access and enable the library to reach a broader audience of researchers, educators, students and the general public. 

“This is a complex project involving a grade II-listed building.”