Dr Williams, an Irish minster, left his collection of over 7,500 books as a library for theological students when he died in 1716. It moved to this mock-Tudor building on Gordon Square, a former hall of residence for University of London students, in 1890. Dr Williams’ Library made headlines in 2006 when it sold its prize possession, a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio containing all thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays, for £2.8 million at Sotheby’s (making it then the world’s most expensive book).