Manchester Central Library

Manchester Central Library stands in St Peter’s Square, a grand circular rotunda topped by a leaded roof that hides a true dome within. Designed by E. Vincent Harris between 1930 and 1934, its façade of Corinthian columns echoes the Pantheon in Rome. The building was Grade II* listed soon after opening, and after a four-year closure it reopened in March 2014 following a £40 million refurbishment. During the works its collections were stored in Winsford Rock Salt Mine while the structure was strengthened and modernised. The renovation won the Construction News Judges Supreme Award in 2015 for being completed on schedule and within budget. The library began life in 1852 as Manchester’s first public lending library, opened by Charles Dickens at Campfield. After moves to King Street and Piccadilly Gardens, the present building was officially opened by King George V on 17 July 1934. The Great Hall’s dome carries an inscription from Proverbs, and Shakespeare Hall displays stained glass by Robert Anning Bell and George Kruger Gray. A white marble statue, The Reading Girl, was presented in 1938 by the Parkyn family. The library houses the second largest public lending collection in Britain. Visitors enter beneath a two-storey portico and climb to the first-floor Great Hall, where original furniture and the dome’s inscription can be seen. Shakespeare Hall, with its Hopton Wood stone walls and heraldic decorations, lies off the main landing. The basement once held four floors of steel book stacks with 35 miles of shelving, while the renovated spaces now include a new indoor link to Manchester Town Hall. The building remains a place where students, readers and the public gather under the portico and inside the reading rooms.