Here & There in The Library – ‘Coffee Break’

Here and There in the Library is a journey through the magical and eclectic collection housed within The Athenaeum. The below extract was originally published in November 1980 by Past President HH Richard Hamilton, and was the first volume of ‘Here&There In The Library’.

Volume 1 – ‘COFFEE BREAK’

I was looking for something completely different when I opened one of the dull-looking red books on one’s immediate right upon entering the Library : Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire: Volume 64, from 1912.

The first article in the book is on the Early Coffee Houses of Liverpool. There was a book sale at the Exchange Coffee House in 1758. Perhaps there were too many people, or the floor was rotten or both; but all of a sudden it collapsed, pitching the assembly into the cellar below. Only the auctioneer was left in the room above, clinging to a dressed which remained fixed to a wall, and holding a book with the ominous title Sherlock on Death.

No fatalities occurred “but” as the local paper reported, “we hear some gentlemen had the misfortune to exchange very good hats for bad ones, which mistake it is hoped will be rectified”.