The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove has a long and varied history of libraries going back over 250 years. Subscription libraries were among the earliest buildings in the resort of Brighton, which developed in the late 18th century; by the 1780s these facilities, which were more like social clubs than conventional book-borrowing venues, were at the heart of the town's social scene. The Brighton Literary Society, its successor the Brighton Royal Literary and Scientific Institution and its rival the Sussex Scientific Institution between them established a "very fine collection" of publications by the mid-19th century, and these books were donated to the town when a public library was founded in 1871. Neighbouring Hove, originally a separate village, established its own public library in 1890.
Public libraries in the city are run by the Royal Pavilion, Museums and Libraries department of Brighton and Hove City Council. Branch libraries operate in the outlying villages and suburbs of Coldean, Hangleton, Hollingbury, Mile Oak, Moulsecoomb, Patcham, Portslade, Rottingdean, Saltdean, Westdene, Whitehawk and Woodingdean. The Brighton and Hove Toy Library is at the Whitehawk Library, rebuilt and reopened in 2011. The city council also operated a mobile library until 2013. Library membership is not limited to residents of the city, and gives borrowing rights at libraries throughout the city. Free internet access was introduced in 2001.
Nationally, libraries have experienced declining usage and funding cuts in recent decades, but Brighton and Hove's libraries have seen significant investment in the 21st century. Jubilee Library in central Brighton was opened in March 2005 to replace outdated split-site facilities nearby, which included a separate music library. It is England's sixth busiest: about 1 million people visited in 2009. New branch libraries have been built in the Coldean, Mile Oak, Whitehawk and Woodingdean suburbs, either as standalone buildings or as part of other community facilities. The library at Mile Oak is due to close in July 2023.
Private and subscription libraries
Brighthelmstone on the Sussex coast in southeast England developed from a farming and fishing village into the fashionable leisure destination of Brighton from the mid-18th century. The town quickly attracted "all of the facilities that would have been expected" of a resort of that era. Among those were the proprietary libraries, also known as circulating libraries. In Brighton's earliest days as a resort, these privately owned facilities functioned as multi-purpose "informal meeting places" where visitors could "read, chat, listen to music, buy fripperies or gamble". Visitors would pay a subscription to become a member of the library for the season, and would write their names in a visitors' book. By doing so they would inform other visitors of their presence in Brighton, the length of their stay and where they were staying, facilitating social interaction. By the 1760s, Brighton's Master of Ceremonies also consulted the visitors' books from the various libraries to find out who was staying in the town and make contact with them. From the 1770s, when speculators built permanent theatres in the town, the libraries also sold tickets for performances, for which they received a commission.
The first true library in Brighton opened in or before 1760 on the Steine (now Old Steine), although a bookshop existed from 1759 on East Street. Baker's Library was the first building erected on the east side of the Steine: it stood on the south corner of the present St James's Street, where St James's Mansions stand now. Its proprietor was Mr E. Baker of Tunbridge Wells, another 18th-century resort town. A small wooden building with a veranda and an attached rotunda for musicians to perform in, "it was more like a club" than a modern library: its other features included billiards tables. It was enlarged in 1806, necessitating the demolition of the original building.