Thomas Layton's Library: A Talk

In conjunction with the exhibition currently showing at Hogarth's House

An illustrated talk will be given by Sarah Hutton, on February 15th from 1930-2030 at Chiswick Memorial Club, Bourne Place Sarah is co-ordinator of the Layton Project, which is currently on exhibit at Hogarth's House, Chiswick, displaying 17th and 18th century books from Thomas Layton's collection.

The first Layton Project exhibition at Hogarth's House runs from 22 January to 3 April, with the second running at Boston Manor House from 30 April.

The talks is part of the Spring Programme of the Chiswick & Brentford Local History Society.

The exhibition Layton’s Library: A Curious Collection displays some of the most beautiful and unusual examples of 17th and 18 th century books once owned by Brentford antiquarian Thomas Layton. These are amongst the oldest volumes from his remarkable collection and this is an exciting opportunity to see them for the first time.

Supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the exhibition has been curated by a team of dedicated local volunteers. The project team has selected books for display from around 8,000 volumes! Visitors will be intrigued by these early books, their various subjects, their bindings and their illustrations. They will also learn about Layton and his passion for collecting and the Trust hopes the exhibition will raise awareness of the collection and share it with a new audience.

The exhibition will be on show at Hogarth’s House, Chiswick, admission free. Visitors are welcome from Tuesday to Sunday, between the hours of 12 noon to 5pm, until 3 April. From 30 April 2016, some of the exhibition will be on show at Boston Manor House in Brentford, where we are planning a range of workshops for adults and children during the summer months.

Thomas Layton (born in 1819, died 1911) lived for the majority of his life on Kew Bridge Road in Brentford, West London. He was a lighterman, a coal merchant, a churchwarden, a member of the Burial Board and a Poor Law Guardian but, above all, he was a “collector”. During the course of his life he built up an enormous and intriguing collection of ‘every conceivable thing that can be found in an antique store’, including maps, prints, spears, swords, tokens, medals and coins, but his plans to endow a museum and library in Brentford ran into difficulties. Many of his antiquities are on public display in the Museum of London.

However, by far the largest element of his collection – his extraordinary collection of books – has remained relatively unknown and little used. The www.laytoncollection.org web site has brought many of the elements together as a “virtual museum”.

February 9, 2016