Catalogue description Fitzroy Library

Also includes a schedule of 1860 giving the layout of the rooms, the fixtures as well as the books, correspondence and papers on the transfer to the borough in 1898 and the sale in 1956 and abstract of title of the Friars estate in All Saints parish (abutting north on the High St. and west on Friars Walk) from 1691. In 1693 Hannah Pellat, widow, died leaving the Friars estate to her son William. It remained in the ownership of the family until 1804 when it was sold to George Verrall who sold to Nehemiah Wimble in 1825. He died in 1843 having sold the property to the London and Brighton Railway Company for making a station, yards, offices etc. They then sold part of the land to Hannah Meyer Fitzroy of 42 Grosvenor Street, Middlesex. in 1860 on which she built a library (designed by Giles Gilbert Scott) in memory of her husband Henry Fizroy, MP for Lewes. In 1898 the trustees of the Library conveyed it to the Corporation and in 1956 they sold it to BIU. Estates Limited.