SION COLLEGE COLLECTIONS: ACCESS FOR ALL

An online exhibition in association with King's College London and the Guildhall Library

Sion College, in the City of London, was founded by the will of Thomas White (d. 1624), Vicar of St. Dunstan in the West. His vision of the College as an association and meeting place for the City clergy was enhanced by his executor, John Simson, who built a library and residential chambers for students. From its outset in 1629 the library benefited from the gifts of London citizens and other benefactors, enjoying widespread support as ‘the public library of this great metropolis’.
 

The strength of the Library lay in biblical studies (with rich holdings in Hebrew, Greek and other languages), patristics, theology and all that was necessary for a learned preaching ministry. The range however was broad, encompassing natural history, classics, law, literature, travel, history and many other subjects. Losses in the Fire of London were more than made good by a series of large-scale donations, and from 1710 until 1836 the Library enjoyed a copyright privilege and could claim new publications from Stationers’ Hall.

In 1886 the College moved from its original home at London Wall to a splendid new building on the Victoria Embankment at Blackfriars. The library then contained some 70,000 volumes. This was its heyday, but in the century which followed its fortunes  declined and financial difficulties forced the Library to close in 1996. Sion College continues now as an association of the clergy in the Diocese of London and maintains a full programme of activities (www.sioncollege.org). It has ensured that its archives and  collections of books and manuscripts remain accessible in London for public use, thanks  to the co-operation of Guildhall Library, Lambeth Palace Library and King’s College London Library.

The Sion College collections form a rich resource for the history of the Church and document the myriad interests of its clergy through the centuries. They include manuscripts from the 11th century onwards and large quantities of early printed books, amongst which are 5,600 English books printed before 1700. Amongst the earliest is Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, printed by William Caxton around 1478. The range of the collections may be instanced from first editions of Fielding’s Tom Jones, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Darwin’s The origin of species.
 

                Sion College collection in Lambeth Palace Library                 

Sion College collection in the Guildhall Library

                                                                 Sion College collection at King's College London