Manchester Central Library: What to Expect on a Visit

If you like old buildings and need a quiet place to read or work, Manchester Central Library is worth knowing about. It's a public library in St Peter's Square, M2 5PD, and the building is a big part of its appeal. It's a Grade II listed building, designed by E. Vincent Harris for Manchester Corporation. Outside, you'll notice the neoclassical rotunda, the two-storey Corinthian portico and the Tuscan colonnade*, all made of Portland stone. The cornerstone was laid on 6 May 1930 by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and King George V opened the library on 17 July 1934.

Inside, the main room is the Great Hall, a reading room on the first floor with seating for up to 300 readers, a central oculus and Art Deco lighting. Above the central counter there's a wrought-iron structure with green malachite pillars and a clock, inscribed with Proverbs 4:7. The Shakespeare Hall has stained glass windows by Robert Anning Bell, showing William Shakespeare, and by George Kruger Gray, showing the shields of the City, University and County of Lancaster. The walls are lined with Hopton Wood stone and the shields of various Manchester institutions. You'll also find The Reading Girl, a white marble statue by Giovanni Ciniselli (1832–1883). Daniel Adamson bought it and his family gave it to the library in 1938. It was conserved during the renovation and reinstalled in the Shakespeare Hall.

The building went through a major renovation between 2010 and 2014, which cost £40 million and was carried out by Laing O'Rourke. It reopened on 22 March 2014. Before the redesign only 30% of the building was open, and afterwards 70% was. The basement theatre became part of the library, and the Library Theatre Company moved to a new theatre in the HOME complex in May 2015. The collections include more than 30 incunables, the Gaskell Collection, the Theatre Collection, the Henry Watson Music Library (opened in 1947 by Sir John Barbirolli) and the Newman Flower Collection of Handel Manuscripts, which includes works by Vivaldi and the Manchester Sonatas. In 2011 the library had 3,600 columns of shelving, with about 45,000 shelves.

The library is open Monday to Thursday from 9:00am to 8:00pm and Friday to Saturday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. It's closed on Sundays and bank holidays, so if you're going today, it's open until 8:00pm. There's a café on the ground floor, open Monday to Thursday from 9:00am to 6:30pm and Friday to Saturday from 9:00am to 4:30pm, and a shop selling city-related gifts, open the same hours as the library. Internet access is free, and library computers are free for members for up to two hours, or three hours for those aged 60 and over or visually impaired. Anthony Burgess was a regular visitor during his school days, and there's a memorial to people from Greater Manchester who fought in the Spanish Civil War, unveiled on 12 February 1983. The library also has a direct link with Manchester Town Hall.