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Central Library
In 1927 a competition
was held for a new library and an extension to the town
hall. The architect E. Vincent Harris won the
competition. The inspiration for the library was Rome’s
Pantheon.
  Prime Minister Ramsey McDonald laid the foundation stone in 1930 and the library was completed in 1934. King George came to Manchester for the official opening.  Like the Pantheon,
it has a circular plan and a central lantern light
at the top of the dome. A portico, supported by six
Corinthian columns, looks out onto St. Peter's
Square. The library and the town hall extension were
designed at the same time. The circular library is
reflected in a curved wall in the town hall
extension, thus creating a dramatic walkway between
the two.
Beneath the dome on the inside is the
circular Reading Room. The building is also home to
the Library Theatre, a café, a reference library and a
Local History Unit.
     ********************* In 2014 the Central Library
reopened after a 3 and half year long closure during
which it was dramatically refurbished and
restructured. The Manchester City website says
that the goal was to create, "...
a brighter and more exciting place with more
space available to customers and visitors than
ever before. It will be joined at lower ground
level to the brand new extended Central Library
that is being developed in the Town Hall
extension. The aim is to create a world-class
library complex, of international significance,
that the people of Manchester will love to visit
and can rightly be proud of."
Below are images of the library as it used to be and
then as it is after the refurbishment.
- Prior to the reopening in 2014 -      The Library Theatre  The Library Theatre
Company was founded in 1952. Their theatre was
located in a former lecture theatre in the
basement of the Central Library. On their
web site they say that, "the company has
produced consistently high quality seasons of
drama, musical theatre, plays for families, and
comedies. It has both helped to develop, and
adapted to, Manchester’s changing theatre
landscape."
  Unfortunately, the theatre was a casualty of the refurbishment. The company has had to look elsewhere for a performance space and the theatre has become a storage space for the library. ************
- A Tour of the inside in April of 2014 -                              Below: what used to be the entrance to the Library Theatre.   ************************ August 2019             *********************************
The story of the
Reference Library didn't begin in St. Peter's
Square. The first public lending and
reference library was established in 1852 in the
Hall of Science in Campsfield, not far from St.
Matthew's Church.
  By 1877 the
Hall of Science was regarded as being unsafe
so the collection was transferred to the Old
Town Hall building on King Street. The
Town Hall had become vacant because in
September of 1877 the new Town Hall in
Albert Square had opened for business.
 As the
library collection grew the Old Town Hall
building didn't have sufficient space to
accommodate it. In 1912 a temporary
home was found in Piccadilly and the Old
Town Hall was demolished. Only the
colonnade was saved and re-erected in Heaton
Park. The Library moved into a
building in Piccadilly Gardens that had once
been the Out-Patients Department of the old
Infirmary and a YMCA hut.
  The white, wood-framed buildings can be seen in the image below behind Queen Victoria's statue and across from the Queen's Hotel.   Although
the intention was for this to be the
library's temporary home it actually
stayed in the Piccadilly Gardens buildings
until 1934 when the Central Library opened
in St. Peter's Square.
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The images below were taken in the library in April of 2024         
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