Is Jonah Freud’s Reference Point the sexiest library in the world?

Jonah Freud

CO-FOUNDER OF REFERENCE POINT

“Our question was, ‘How do we make a library unintimidating?’ And the answer was, ‘Put a bar in it,’” says Jonah Freud. The 28-year-old entrepreneur is talking about Reference Point, a library, bookshop and bar located just off the Strand in central London, which he co-founded with Sophia Dowson Collins in 2020. “If you can come in here and snog someone then suddenly that space doesn’t feel scary any more,” he says.

Jonah Freud in Reference Point, London © Sirui Ma

Specialising in “visual literature”, Reference Point’s 10,000-strong collection of rare photobooks, catalogues and magazines can be explored at leisure, with a smaller selection available to purchase. You might pick up a copy of Aspen, Phyllis Johnson’s “magazine in a box” from the 1960s, a Moderna Museet catalogue or Public Relations, Garry Winogrand’s book of photographs of 1970s America. It’s free to the public (although the £12 a month membership gets you after-hours access, free tickets to events and discounts on books and drinks). “No white gloves, no dark wood,” says Freud of the space, which is furnished with plywood shelves and mismatched modernist chairs. “I didn’t want anything that you wouldn’t put your feet on.”