Wiener Library

The West End

LoginSave

The Wiener Library was established by German Alfred Wiener in 1933 to document the rise of anti-Semitism in his home country, from which he had fled in the face of Nazi persecution. It's the world’s oldest institution dedicated to the study of the Holocaust. Now a public library and research institute, it contains over a million items relating to one of history’s darkest periods. Free one-hour public tours are held on Tuesdays at 1pm.

Four exhibitions are staged here per year. In order to view some of the Czech and Slovak torah rolls, many dating from the 19th century, you'll have to join the public tour.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • The Long Walk, the pathway leading to Windsor Castle is 2 1/2 miles long.

    Windsor Castle

    20.76 MILES

    The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…

  • Westminster Abbey.

    Westminster Abbey

    1.48 MILES

    A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…

  • Tate Modern museum on the southern bank of the River Thames.

    Tate Modern

    1.52 MILES

    One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…

  • London Natural History Museum

    Natural History Museum

    2.74 MILES

    With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…

  • St. pauls cathedral with red double decker bus in London, United Kingdom

    St Paul's Cathedral

    1.35 MILES

    Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…

  • The Tower of London

    Tower of London

    2.39 MILES

    Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…

  • Dusk view of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the banks of the River Thames in London

    Shakespeare's Globe

    1.58 MILES

    Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…

  • Great Court, British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

    British Museum

    0.15 MILES

    With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…

View more attractions

Nearby The West End attractions

1. Brunei Gallery

0.03 MILES

Part of the University of London's School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), this gallery features permanent displays and exhibitions of art from…

2. Russell Square

0.07 MILES

At the heart of Bloomsbury and originally laid out in 1800 by Humphrey Repton, Russell Sq was dark and bushy until a striking facelift early in the new…

3. British Museum

0.15 MILES

With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…

4. Bedford Square

0.19 MILES

Lovely Bedford Sq is the only completely Georgian square still surviving in Bloomsbury.

5. New London Architecture

0.22 MILES

A large, constantly updated 1:2000-scale model of the capital highlights planned and new buildings, as well as various neighbourhood regeneration…

6. Gordon Square

0.26 MILES

The centre of literary Bloomsbury was Gordon Sq, where some of the buildings are marked with blue plaques.

7. Tavistock Square

0.27 MILES

Tavistock Sq, the 'square of peace', contains a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a memorial to wartime conscientious objectors and a cherry tree recalling the…

8. St George’s Bloomsbury

0.27 MILES

One of a half-dozen designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, this superbly restored church (1730) is distinguished by its classical portico of Corinthian capitals…