Manchester Central Library

The central Wolfson Reading Room in 2021.

The Shakespeare Hall entrance in 2014.

The exterior of the library

The Ceiling in the entrance

Designed by architect Vincent Harris, the striking rotunda form of the library was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Like its 2nd-century model, the library is a round building fronted by a large two-storey portico which forms the main entrance on St Peter's Square, and is surrounded by five bays of Corinthian columns. Around the second and third floors is a Tuscan colonnade, topped by a band of unrelieved Portland stone.

The pitched leaded roof appears from street level to be a dome, but this is only a surrounding roof. The dome that can be seen from within the Great Hall lies within this roof, and cannot be seen from the ground.[16]

On the first floor is the Great Hall, a large reading room topped by a dome. Much of the original furniture designed by the architect can be seen on this floor. Around the rim of the dome is an inscription from the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament:[16]

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her, she shall give of thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory she shall deliver to thee.
Proverbs 4:7

In former years the dome's acoustics caused an echo problem, which repeated several times any short noise made in the room. Adding sound-absorbing material reduced this effect.

The Shakespeare Hall is an ornate chamber displaying local heraldry and with large stained glass windows. The central window was designed by Robert Anning Bell and depicts William Shakespeare and scenes from his plays. Two side windows designed by George Kruger Gray depict the coats of arms of the City of Manchester, the University of Manchester, and the County and Duchy of Lancaster. The windows were a memorial bequest to the library by Rosa E. Grindon (1848–1923), the widow of Manchester botanist Leo Grindon.[17][18]

The ceiling decorations include the arms and crests of the Duchy of Lancaster, the See of York, the See of Manchester, the City of Manchester, and Lancashire County Council. The walls of Shakespeare Hall are covered with Hopton Wood stone quarried in Derbyshire. On the walls are the arms of The Manchester Grammar School, Manchester University, the Manchester Regiment, Humphrey Chetham, the Overseers of the Township, England, St. George, St. Mary (patron saint of Manchester), and over the memorial window, Shakespeare.

On the left landing is a white marble statue, the Reading Girl by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Ciniselli. It was bought by the industrialist and promoter of the Manchester Ship Canal, Daniel Adamson. The statue was presented to the library by his grandchildren, the Parkyn family, in 1938.[16]

The new Lending Library in 2014.

It is the second largest public lending library in Britain, after the Library of Birmingham.[19]

Beneath the Great Hall were four floors of steel book stacks providing 35 miles of shelving which accommodated one million books:[20] video. Those floors were only accessible to employees and were environmentally controlled to protect books, many of which are old and fragile.[20] The upper two stack floors occupied all the area under the dome. The fourth level, the Archive unit, was in the basement of the building. The lower two stack floors were smaller because the basement theatre took some of that area. In 2011 when the library closed for the alterations, there were 3600 stack columns supporting approximately 45,000 shelves; those columns were rooted in the sandstone rock underneath and supported the Great Hall's reinforced concrete floor. Placed end to end, those shelves would have covered over 35 miles (56 km). The total floor area was about 7,000 square yards (5,850 m²).[16] After the 2010–2014 alterations, many of the former stack books (except rare or valuable or fragile books) are on public shelves.

The library collections include over 30 incunabula (books published before 1500) and many first and early editions of major works. The special collections include:[16]

• The Gaskell Collection – works by Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most important writers to have lived and worked in the city
• The Theatre Collection – a record of the history of theatre in Manchester
• The Henry Watson Music library – one of the largest public library collections of sheet music, named after the Mancunian musician and composer Dr Henry Watson (1846-1911) who bequeathed his collection to the library. It was officially opened in 1947 by Sir John Barbirolli.[21][22]
• The Newman Flower Collection of Handel Manuscripts – acquired from the estate of Sir Newman Flower by the Henry Watson Music library in 1965. This library of rare manuscripts had originally been collected by Charles Jennens, a close friend of George Frederic Handel, and was later held in the collection of the Earl of Aylesford. It contains works by Handel, as well as items of Italian music from the early 18th century, including concerto partbooks of the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. Notably, the collection also includes a number of previously unknown violin sonatas by Vivaldi, autographed by the composer, which are now known as The Manchester Sonatas.[23][21]

The Library Theatre occupied much of the basement of Manchester Central Library and was the home of the Library Theatre Company, a Manchester City Council service. It was built in 1934 as a lecture theatre, and since 1952 had been used by the Library Theatre Company. After the 2011–2014 alterations its area is now part of the library. A new theatre opened on First Street in partnership with Cornerhouse, Manchester in 2015.

Spanish Civil War Memorial Manchester Central Library

There is a memorial to those from Greater Manchester who fought in the Spanish Civil War as part of the International Brigades the inscription reads Voluntarios Internacionales de la Libertad dedicated to the men & women from the Greater Manchester area who fought against fascism in Spain.[24] The memorial was designed by Sol Garson, and unveiled by Cllr. H.T. Lee on the 12 Feb 1983.[25]

Anthony Burgess, the author who wrote the novel A Clockwork Orange, was a regular visitor to the library during his school days. In a volume of his autobiography, Little Wilson and Big God (1987) he recounted his visit to the index system, then in temporary accommodation in Piccadilly, Manchester, where he met an older woman who took him to her flat in Ardwick where she seduced him (p. 121, 1988 Penguin ed.)

In 1968 it was recorded that the adult lending stock was 895,000, the adult reference stock 638,200, the junior stock 114,600, a total of nearly one and two thirds of a million volumes. There were about 2,000 reading places and an estimated 10,000 people visited the library each day. There were subscriptions to 3,000 periodicals.[26]

A panoramic view of St Peter's Square. From the far left to right: Midland Hotel, Manchester Central Library (before the current alterations), and Manchester Town Hall extension.

• Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
• Listed buildings in Manchester-M2
• John Rylands Library

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manchester Central Library.

• Great Hall, Manchester Central Library Manchester Archives+
• Central Library homepage
• History of Manchester Central Library
• Local image collection – contains historical photographs of the library
• The Library Theatre
• What's On At The Library Theatre, Manchester