Bromley House Library, Nottingham

Nottingham Subscription Library was established in 1816 and moved to Bromley House on Angel Row six years later. The plaque outside tells us that the house dates from 1752: it was originally a town house built for George Smith, who was a grandson of the founder of Smith's Bank.

Bromley House Library's inconspicuous entrance. This is a Grade II* listed building.

The first floor, with its superb spiral staircase leading to the Gallery.

Up in the Gallery looking towards the garden at the back.

And a different view of that staircase.

The George Green Room, which is at the front of the building and named after the prominent Sneinton-born physicist who was a member of the library and is most noted for his paper An essay on the Application of mathematical analysis to the theories of electricity and magnetism (1828). There's a very impressive collection of (particularly 19th century, female-authored) novels here.

Back to the first floor again, and the painting in the Neville Hoskins Room is Clifton Grove by John Rawson Walker (1796–1893).

This detail is a little blurred, but the features are relatively clear. It's thought to represent the poet Henry Kirke White (1785–1806), author of Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems (1803).

Thanks to Dr Rowena Edlin-White for showing me round the remarkable Bromley House Library, which for some reason I'd just not got round to visiting before.