Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford and one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1602 by diplomat Sir Thomas Bodley on the site of an earlier university library destroyed during the Reformation. As one of six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom, it is entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain — a right exercised since 1610 that has grown the collection to over 13 million items, stored across multiple buildings including an underground repository beneath Radcliffe Square. Its Perpendicular Gothic Divinity School and the atmospheric Duke Humfrey's Library, where books are still chained to their shelves, served as the Hogwarts library in the Harry Potter films. Guided tours are available to the public; active reading rooms are open to credentialed researchers Monday to Friday until 21:00.