Library of Mistakes

Inside is one of the most unexpected rooms in the city. Long trestle tables and benches fill a reading room lit from skylights, and all around it dark timber shelves rise to a gallery reached by a wrought-iron spiral staircase. The walls are hung with framed share certificates, old newspaper headlines and wartime savings posters, a painting of a crowded trading floor hangs above one alcove, and rows of leather-bound volumes line the shelves beside a partners' desk topped in red leather. Every book here is about money going right and, more often, going wrong. Come to one of its evening talks for the easiest way in.