The Library of St. John the Beheaded

The Library of St. John the Beheaded is an institution in the fictional world of Dr Who. Created by Andy Lane, for his novel All-Consuming Fire, it is described as being under the control of the Roman Catholic Church which uses the Library as a depository for banned literature. The Library plays on the same IDeaS AbOUT the possible contents of a Vatican controlled collection as The DaVinci Code.

Real-World Context

The Library is located in the Seven Dials district of London, used as a setting for crime stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie as it was one of London’s ancient ‘rookeries’ a tightly packed slum of poverty and lawlessness. The area was depicted on television in the Channel 4 drama ‘City of Vice’.

In the Library the contemporary Seventh Doctor played on television by Sylvester McCoy encounters his Third Incarnation as played by Jon Pertwee in a reference back to the several comments made by the Third Doctor to his own connections to London’s exclusive clubs and societies.

Similar Locations

The Library was one of several recurring locations employed by the Virgin Books authors of the New Adventures; others include a house in Allen Road, Kent, and an asteroid housing The Braxiatel Collection which had its origins in a casual remark made on television and which gave rise to the recurring character of Irving Braxiatel.