A Year’s Membership To This Gorgeous Library in Fort Only Costs INR 1,000
Ten-Second Takeaway
Go to the JN Petit Library and Reading Room at Fort to browse through a myriad collection of books while sitting in its breezy reading room and soaking in the beauty through its stained glass windows.
Tell Me More
If you’re a book-lover and haven’t yet set foot inside SoBo’s JN Petit Library and Reading room, then let us tell you that you’re missing out on a lot.
Established in 1856, this is one of Mumbai’s oldest libraries and is breathtakingly beautiful. Located at Fort inside this very magnificent and Gothic-style building, this library boasts of a huge collection of books {over 1,50,000 and counting}, that are spread across multiple categories such a fiction, non-fiction, art, culture, history, religion, general subjects, books in regional languages and more.
They also have a rare copy of Firdausi’s 11th century epic poem Shahnama, illustrated with gold leaf and an entire huge section {a special room, actually} that is home to rare books, old manuscripts of the Zoroastrian religion and more.
The library recently underwent a restoration process to preserve its beautiful architecture. When here, make sure you spend good enough time in its reading room, one that gorgeous and huge and majorly populated by college students {especially before exams}. The room boasts of stunning stained glass windows, reclining chairs that let you read in leisure and is amazing airy.
How Do I Become A Member?
It’s pretty simple. You go there, fill out a membership form with all the details and get started. Annual membership will cost you INR 1,000 where you’re allowed to take three books for a fortnight and two magazines at a time for a week. They regularly update their collections and have books that suit every kind of a reader.
So, We’re Saying…
If you’re a sucker for books, architecture and just spending your time catching up on great pieces of literature, then make your way to the JN Petit Library and Reading Room in Fort and get mesmerised with all that it has to offer to you.
Photos: Athul Prasad/LBB
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Over 1,50,000 books are waiting.
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Dear Yazdi my paternal uncle was a member of this library and when I was young I would take a letter duly signed by him with his membership no and go and collect a book fr the library. Is this practice still prevalent Regards Najoo aunty
I was a member of this prestigious library since my student days right up to time I left Mumbai for health reasons.No words required to praise this magnificent institution.Hope it will keep serving for posterity.
I would regularly go to this library when I was young and enjoyed browsing through its books and magazine sections as well as used the reading room for studying during my college days. The premises were perfect, rooms big and airy, the collection phenominal and an old world ambience that can satisfy any reader. But sorry to write, I cannot say the same for the staff as it was then, especially the peons who would be most reluctant to open the huge book cupboards which were mostly kept locked. It would be a struggle to locate them to open the cupboards, as they did a quick disappearing act, then request them for help in getting at a book and if it was kept on a high shelf or on a cupboard atop another cupboard, they would need to bring a long ladder and would make one feel that that we were bothering them. So finally feeling that access to the books was not easily available, I discontinued my membership as I had to limit myself to books that were only kept at a lower height. But this was a long time ago and how things must have changed . It is indeed a beautiful library and to one who loves books, a dream come true. May it ever remain for generations to enjoy.