Circulating Library

The opening of circulating libraries in Bath from the second half of the eighteenth century onward is closely linked to the growing popularity of the city's mineral water spas among the nobility and gentry. Taking the cure to improve one's health in the morning was followed by relaxation, social pleasures and cultural pursuit in the afternoon and evening.,  Gentlemen and ladies would have wanted to read but few would have brought many heavy books with them, hence the need to be able to borrow some. Additionally by the end of the eighteenth century the price of books rocketed, making borrowing an attractive alternative to buying, especially in the case of less serious books such as novels, which were read primarily for enjoyment rather than study. For a fixed subscription, people could become members of a circulating library. These were usually founded by booksellers and binders who extended their business by lending extra copies of their books. It is estimated that by 1790 there were around six hundred libraries renting and lending books to fifty thousand people across England, and several of them were located in Bath.
The first circulating library in Bath was opened in 1728 on Terrace Walk by James Leake, a bookseller and printer originally from London. It is estimated that by the turn of the nineteenth century there were at least ten circulating libraries in Bath. The most exclusive one was undoubtedly Marshall's at 23, Milsom Street, which opened in 1787. Originally it was jointly owned by Samuel Jackson Pratt and James Marshall, but by 1793 Marshall was the sole proprietor. The list of his subscribers read like a Who's Who:

two princes (the Prince of Wales and Frederick, Prince of Orange), five dukes, four duchesses, seven earls, fourteen countesses, many other nobles and forty-three knights. Professional customers were three admirals, four generals and many service officers down to twenty-six majors and seventy-one captains, and also ecclesiastics: one archbishop, six bishops and 114 clerics.Circulating libraries remained popular for several decades before the falling price of books put many of them out of business.

[Painted Signs and Mosaics]