Libraries History of Central Library

Designing and Building the Central Library

In 1920, Manchester Corporation purchased the S.t Peter’s Square site. They had a new Central Library and Town Hall Extension in mind.

In 1926, a competition was held for Architects to submit their designs for the new library. E. Vincent Harris (1876-1971), a well-respected municipal architect, was appointed as Architect in 1928. Harris worked closely with Stanley Jast and Charles Nowell, the Chief Librarians, on the building's unusual design. The design was strongly influenced by visits to American libraries.

Although the Town Hall Extension and Central Library were designed to complement each other, their style differs. Harris was a great admirer of Roman architecture. Central Library is often compared to Emperor Hadrian's Pantheon in Rome. The building was constructed on a steel frame, with reinforced concrete floors. It is faced with Portland stone. The building's most striking features are:

• the main entrance, a huge, two-storey portico with six columns, and
• the colonnade around the second and third floors.

Harris's design created a feeling of light, space and openness in the library. To achieve this, he used modern techniques such as the 'plenum system' of heating and ventilation. This technique left the floors and walls free of radiators and pipework. The fittings, metalwork and furniture were of the highest quality. Hopton Wood stone from Derbyshire lines the internal walls. Much of the joinery is oak or English walnut, and the metalwork is largely bronze.

Constructing the Central Library, 1931-1934

"The steelwork of the new library was etched in intricate tracery against the blue, a vast web in which men were entangled here and there like flies fatally meshed. Through a gap in the boarding she looked down into the great hole out of which the building was rising, and whistled jauntily. It was grand to look at. Men wheeling barrows, men running up ladders, men clambering about the web, walking like tight-rope experts across precarious gulfs; cranes grunting and lifting and moving their tall fingers in wide arcs upon the sky; shrill whistles of command, brisk rattle of hammer on steel and slither of chains upon pulleys all grand to look at in the blue-and-white morning." (Shabby Tiger, by Howard Spring, 1934).

The Reference Library at Piccadilly closed on 17 March 1934. It re-opened in the new building on the following Monday 19 March, without any break in service.

See our Local Image Collection for pictures of Central Library

Transformation of the Central Library

Builders working in the Central Library reading room during the transformation project.

In 2010, the Central Library closed to undergo major restoration work to make it fit for the future. In the meantime, a temporary library opened at Elliot House on Deansgate.

The newly restored St Peter’s Square building re-opened in March 2014.  Previously, only 30 per cent of the building was open to the public, with 70 per cent behind the scenes. The redesign opened up the library and reversed these ratios. This meant more space and more services. 

The new building is now the most visited public library in the UK, with around 2 million visitors per year. It often features as one of Manchester’s top attractions to visit. 

Former staff recall the new Central Library building

"When it was being built, the public were very intrigued about its final appearance - they were used to rectangular buildings and the shape of the girders used seemed to make little sense. It was called various names, e.g. the Corporation Wedding Cake (it seemed to sparkle white surrounded by black buildings) and the St. Peter's Square Gasometer, but the citizens were very proud of it. I remember families coming in first to 'gawp'... Under the portico became a favourite trysting place. In all, the shape of the building was its best advertisement and it was never necessary to put a notice 'Public Library' on the outside." (Leslie Smyth, former member of staff).

"It became the boast of the reference library that they were removed to the new building without a break in service to the public. This was achieved because in 1934 authorities were able to indicate to the Labour Exchanges that they required a squad of able-bodied men to report for duty at 8am or 8pm as the case might be, and their wishes were immediately fulfilled.

The operation was undertaken at night so that the normal traffic of the city would have least disruption, and as it had been planned so it proved to be. In three weeks, over a million books and manuscripts, files and periodicals had been carried almost entirely by hand from one place to the other: only in times of serious depression when manpower was plentiful could such an operation be successfully concluded. In the meantime, the denuded reference library functioned as best it could, and service was of such a calibre that a book that had already been transported might be brought back to Piccadilly at a reader's behest." (Hilda McGill, former member of staff).