Library of St John the Beheaded

The Library of St John the Beheaded was a secret library of forbidden texts, owned by the Catholic Church and located in London.

The library was hidden in St Giles' Rookery area of London so that the Vatican could deny its existence. The books in the library had been hidden by the church for the protection of the public; a small number of patrons were allowed access to the library, but with very few exceptions the books had to stay on the premises. Anyone caught attempting to remove a book had their hands cut off.

The library's catalogue included dangerous occult literature, evidence of alien activity (which included the diary of Redvers Fenn-Cooper) and lost works by such great writers as Plato and Shakespeare. The Doctor had been a patron of the library since his first incarnation, when he had visited there with Susan. (NA: All-Consuming Fire)

History
The unprecedented theft of a book from the library in 1887 led the church to enlist the aid of Sherlock Holmes, who soon discovered that book was last read by the the Doctor. (NA: All-Consuming Fire) In the twentieth century, Professor Travers was granted access to the library when researching possible previous invasion attempts by the Great Intelligence. Both the Professor's daughter Anne and Ashley Chapel used books from the library in 1999 to learn quantum mnemonics, the language of the Old Ones. Sixth (in an earlier incarnation) also visited the library while investigating these events. By this time it appeared that Chapel had purchased the Library from the Vatican. (MA: Millennial Rites)


 * The library may have been founded by (or at least with the assistance of) Irving Braxiatel, and it seems likely its contents eventually became part of the Braxiatel Collection.