The Longsight Library and Learning Centre

This library building on Stockport Road is Longsight's third public library.  The first was the Longsight Branch Free Library which opened in 1892.  This version, in the form of a state-of-the-art library and Adult Learning Centre, opened in 2010 after a £2.3m rebuilding of a previous library on this site.  The goal of that redevelopment, according to an article published in the Manchester Evening News on March 13, 2010, was to create "a new children’s zone, a homework club and the first headspace zone – a new laid-back environment for people to read or get online."  In addition,  "The first floor will feature the new Learning Centre to include classrooms for various courses such as music, language, history, crafts, literacy and numeracy.  There will also be a relaxing break-out space and community area."

******************

The previous library had occupied this same site that was once the location of the Kings cinema.  The image below was taken in 2009 prior to its redevelopment.  

**********************

When I was child in the 1950s the library was across Stockport Road behind Longsight Public Hall.  It can be seen in the image below, shown here with the permission of Barbara Barraclough a librarian at Longsight Library.  The taller of the two buildings is the Longsight Public Hall. The lower building, at the rear, is the former Longsight Branch library

Little remains of the old library.



However, this bricked-up doorway reveals that it was once there.

It was in 1854 that the establishment of a Literary and Mechanics' Institution for Longsight which was then called a "now populous and rapidly increasing village," was first seriously attempted. A preliminary meeting was held on the 10th August in that year, under the presidency of the Rev. J. P. Pitcairn, and eventually it was resolved, on the 15th December following, to form such an institution. Premises were taken, and the opening tea party was held on Easter Monday, 9th April, 1855, with Mr. Robert Rumney in the chair, and among the speakers was Mr. Harry Rawson. The first President was Mr. Richard Holt, and the Secretary was Mr. Thomas Froggatt, Mr. Rumney being subsequently appointed Chairman of Directors. In a short time the original quarters proved too small, and at the Annual Meeting in January, 1857, a movement was begun for the provision of a new building. Eighteen months afterwards, on 24th July, 1858, the foundation stone of the present building was laid by Mr. Ivie Mackie, Mayor of Manchester, who also presided at its formal opening on 1st March, 1859. The cost amounted to about £2,000, over £900 of which was raised by a bazaar - the rest coming from public subscriptions.

The Mechanics' Institution was the most important educational agency in the district for many years, embracing, as it did, library, reading room, elementary school, and classes for foreign languages and more advanced subjects, and many excellent series of concerts, lectures, and high-class entertainments were provided during the early part of its history. For some time past, however, owing to the provision of increased facilities elsewhere, the need for the Institution was no longer felt, its use fell off, and ultimately, in December, 1890, the Trustees passed this resolution --

That, having regard to the recent incorporation of Gorton in the City of Manchester, it is desirable in the interest of the members of the Longsight Mechanics' Institution and of the inhabitants of the district, that the property and effects of the said Institution should be transferred, with its liabilities, to the Manchester Corporation, for the purposes of a Free Library, or for such other public purposes not inconsistent with the original objects of the said Institution.

Negotiations were forthwith opened with the Corporation, and after the Institution had been formally dissolved at a meeting held on 29th May, 1891, the Public Free Libraries Committee entered into possession of the property.

The Longsight Branch Free Library, formerly the Mechanics' Institution, Stockport Road, was opened by Mr. Alexander Ireland, on the afternoon of Saturday, July 23, 1892, in the presence of a large audience. The Mayor of Manchester (Alderman Bosdin T. Leech) presided, and the ladies and gentlemen on the platform included the Mayoress, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Ireland, the Misses Ireland, Mr. and Mrs. John Mills, Councillor J. W. Southern (Chairman of the Free Libraries Committee), Councillor Harry Rawson (Deputy-Chairman), Aldermen Dr. Russell, Hugo Shaw, and Abraham Lloyd, Councillors Charles Rowley, Reynolds, S. H. Brooks, Norris, Hoy, and Uttley; the Rev. C. P. Roberts (Rector of St. John's, Longsight), the Rev. H. Norburn (Rector of St. Agnes's, Birch), Messrs. John H. Nodal, Frank Hampson, Thomas Ashbury, C.E., W. H. Flinn, G. H. Swindles, Richard Gill, John Finlayson, Isaac Gleave, F. W. Lean, S. Dewar Lewin, Charles W. Sutton (Chief Librarian), and Lawrence Dillon (Superintendent of branches).

The Mayor said the Longsight Mechanics' Institution dated back to 1854, and it had recently been handed over by the trustees to the Manchester Corporation. He was pleased that they had on the platform that afternoon Councillor Harry Rawson, Deputy Chairman of the Free Libraries Committee, who rendered service in the establishment of the institution. Mr. Rawson had long laboured, and was still labouring, in the cause of free libraries. There had been a danger of the library going to decay, as had been the case with many large subscription libraries in Manchester, notably the Portico, through the falling away of the original supporters, and the advantage of the transference here was, he believed, in the permanency of the Corporation The number of books taken over by the Corporation was 2670, but they now started with 7,495. The decrease of crime, the quickening of intelligence, and the higher tone in amusement in the county of Lancaster, he attributed in great measure to education. But education was a sward which might by used to disadvantage if the people were not taught how to apply it, and he believed that Libraries did a great deal in teaching its use. The libraries of the Manchester Corporation were well looked after. No books were admitted that were not instructive, moral, and of high tone. He congratulated Longsight upon having a free library, and he hoped that the young men and women of the district would make good use of it.

The Longsight Branch soon became so exceedingly successful, being situated in a populous district where the attractions and means of instruction it affords are strongly appreciated, that the accommodation originally provided was, in 1895, considerably increased.

******************