Members-only Library
If you want to use the Heythrop Library’s Mount Street reading room and collections you will need to have a serious interest in studying theology or philosophy, and become a member of the Heythrop Library.
To access the material in the Mount Street reading room (only) for research as a non-member, you can obtain a reference pass, for 1 day, 1 week or 1 month.
We will process your application or renewal as soon as possible. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for your patience. If you have any questions about renewing or applying for membership, please email us (for our email address, please see footer of this page).
This page contains further information on:
- Paid-for membership (full)
- Paid-for membership (half)
- Reference-only membership fees
- Free membership
- How to renew your membership
Overview of access options and what is included in each
| Category | Cost to user | Needs| Use of Reading Room to work on our collections | Access latest issues of ca. 150 journals (in reading room) | Borrow from Reading room (8,000+ books) | Can request materials from off-site stores (ca. 200,000 items) | Borrow off-site books | Recommend new books for our collection | Can request scans of chapters or journal articles (for a charge) | Can Scans of chapters or journal articles (for free), unless excessive numbers of requests |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | £5, one-off and initial admin fee | Fill out online form | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paid Half-membership (for 12 months) | £50 | Fill out online form | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Paid Full membership (for 12 months) | £100 | Fill out online form | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reference access (£5 per day, £15 per week,or £30 per month) | £5, £15, or £30 | Fill out reference-only online form | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Paid-for membership (full)
If you do not qualify for free membership (see below), but have a serious interest in studying theology or philosophy, you can apply for paid-for membership.
This costs £100 per year and includes the benefit of borrowing any of our borrowable books (on-site at the London Jesuit Centre, ca. 8,000 books), as well as over 140,000 modern volumes stored off-site.
Please use our membership application form to apply (and pick the full membership option).
Paid-for membership (half)
If you do not qualify for free membership (see below), but have a serious interest in studying theology or philosophy, you can apply for paid-for membership, if you would only like to borrow from our reading room at the London Jesuit Centre (ca. 8,000+ books), and consult the latest issues of our 140 serials (not borrowable).
This costs £50 per year.
Please use our membership application form to apply (and pick the half membership option).
Reference-only membership fees
For just using the reading room at Mount Street, with its 8,000+ books, we also offer the following reference-only membership fees:
- £5 per day,
- £15 per week,
- or £30 per month.
These reference-only memberships do not entitle the member to borrow any books or request books from the offsite stores (ca. 140,000 volumes).
Please use our reference-only form to apply for this reference-only membership.
All payments need to be made by a debit or credit card.
Free membership
If you are entitled to free membership, we will need to ask you for a one-off, non-refundable £5 admin charge, before creating your card.
Free membership is available to certain categories of readers, including
- members of the Society of Jesus
- members of other Christian religious orders,
- any lay partners working in a Work of the Jesuits in Britain (with the support of their Director of Work),
- former Heythrop College faculty staff,
- Christian priests and seminarians,
- teachers of religious education at schools (i.e. not academics working in FE or HE),
- London Jesuit Centre students (for the duration of their course/during LJC teaching terms only),
- current HE & FE students (for the duration of their course),
- sixth-form students,
- and those with no income (if you benefit from receiving a pension, please do not pick this option).
To make initial contact about becoming a member of the Heythrop Library, please use our full membership application form to apply.
If you are entitled to free membership, we will need to ask you for a one-off £5 admin charge, before creating your card. This is necessary as we had too many uncollected cards. See https://heythroplibrary.co.uk/2025/02/24/membership-application-charge/ .
How to renew your membership
If your membership has not yet expired, or has not expired for 6 months or longer:
Please go to our renewal form and fill this out accordingly. If your circumstances have changed you might need to consider whether you qualify for free membership, or paid membership (see above for the criteria for free membership). If in doubt, email us before filling out the form, or fill out the form, and let us consider your renewal request.
If a member’s membership privileges have expired for 6 months or longer the members data will be deleted. This is to follow good GDPR practice, as well as not keeping data for longer than we need it. The only exception is if a member has not returned our books.