THINK of the ultimate luxury status symbol for the home. Personal cinema? Plunge pool? Crestron home automation? Padded garage for the Ferrari so it doesn’t get scratched? In fact, the lastest must-have for the moneyed classes is . . . a library.

Yes, that’s library, as in shelves of leather-bound classics, wood panelling, oil paintings and comfy armchairs by the fire. The sort of musty old room without which no gentleman’s country residence was complete 100 years ago. It’s true that the modern library might conceal the latest audiovisual equipment behind said leather-bound classics, but the emphasis is very much old-fashioned low-tech. A very luxurious, high-spec kind of low-tech.

The trend has been observed by Aidan Mortimer, the chief executive of Symm, a 200-year-old firm of master builders that specialises in woodwork and stonemasonry. Based in Oxford, the company has projects that range from building private houses to restoring Oxford colleges to carving interiors for churches and yachts, for anything up to £20 million. In the mid-19th century it spent 22 years rebuilding much of Exeter College under the direction of George Gilbert Scott. More recently, the Symm flag has fluttered from the Royal Opera House, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.

Symm’s wealthy private clients are clamouring, it seems, for finely carved luxury libraries. The home cinema is officially passé. “Libraries have become particularly prevalent in the last couple of years,” says Mortimer. “They had rather given way to other dedicated spaces like gyms, media rooms and saunas, but libraries are now increasingly requested by clients interested in a new form of lavish space.”

The libraries coveted by the rich and famous are “like the image of a library you have in your mind’s eye,” says Mortimer. “Dark wood, shelving, subtle lighting, a fireplace – that’s what people are looking for.” Traditional Classical or Arts & Crafts styles are more in vogue than contemporary styles, particularly among US clients. “We did one library for a client in Virginia”, says Mortimer, “with fluted columns modelled on Christ Church library, and panel mould details based on Merton senior common room.”

Symm’s client list also includes Russians and Arabs, who, contrary to stereotype, don’t want libraries plastered in gold leaf. “Their taste is quite chaste and well-considered,” says Mortimer. “You could walk into libraries commissioned by British and Russian clients and you wouldn’t spot the difference.” Most of the new library-owners are young, newly rich, and building a family home, rather than speculating in property development. “They are looking to make the most solid statement possible and the Classical tradition provides that. Very rarely are they built to sell – it’s more of a family seat idea.”

A Symm library is anything from “elaborate bookcases on a landing in a London house” for “a few thousand pounds”, to “a manorial space with lighting, art, books, concealed computers and a plaster strapwork ceiling” for “several hundred thousand pounds”. A common request is to convert squash courts into libraries that double as billiard rooms and studies.

So what has prompted the return of the luxury gentleman’s library? Mortimer believes that, just like in the old days, it’s all about a public display of culture and wealth. “A library is a comforting retreat from a frenetic world,” he says. “That said, it’s also a reflection of your taste that’s designed to make people stop and look; it gives an insight into the likes and dislikes of the person who commissioned it.” Which is more than a plasma screen can do. www.symm.co.uk

Naomi Cleaver gives expert advice on how to give your home a luxury makeover at: timesonline.co.uk/interiors

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