The Centre for Regional and Local History’s New Library Spaces

Back in 2021 the Centre for English Local History moved out of Marc Fitch House at 3-5 Salisbury Road, where it had resided since 1988, to a new space on the University’s main campus. Just after the start of the new academic year in October 2022, it relaunched as the Centre for Regional and Local History (CRLH). Through the dedicated work of staff and volunteers, the Centre set up two new library spaces to hold its extensive collections and provide study space for staff and postgraduates in the Centre.  

The first of our new spaces is the Library in Room 802 of the Attenborough Tower. It is now home to the collections that were formerly housed in the Marc Fitch Library at 3-5 Salisbury Road. All materials are arranged thematically and include books on palaeography and seals, social and economic history, religious history, personal names and popular culture, as well as a wide range of other topics. Oversized books and major series, including those of the Harleian Society and the Index Library (published by the British Record Society) can also be found here, in addition to our new featured collection on Gild and Livery Companies. Room 802 also has excellent views over large parts of Leicester.

Room 802 is not just home to the CRLH collections. It is also the site of the collections belonging to the Centre for Urban History (CUH), which were also once housed in the Marc Fitch Library before its move to the University of Leicester’s main campus. CUH’S collections of monographs and journals are arranged A-Z by author and located on the left hand side as you enter the room.

The second of our new library spaces is the Regional and Local History Library in Room 101, also in the Attenborough Tower, and easily identified by the bust of Marcus Aurelius outside the door. Here, staff and students will find the contents of the former Topographical Library and the former Map Room at 3-5 Salisbury Road. Our extensive range of books on English historic counties are organised A-Z by county, while materials on a variety of other subjects such as historiography, cartography and architecture have been organised thematically. In Room 101, readers will also find the Domesday county books and a large collection of maps including major Ordnance Survey series folded maps and Bartholomew folded maps.