Edinburgh Central Library

Edinburgh Central Library stands in the heart of the city on George IV Bridge, its French Renaissance façade rising above the Old Town’s cobbled streets. The building replaced a 17th-century mansion once owned by Sir Thomas Hope, advocate to King Charles I, whose home’s lintel with the carved motto TECUM HABITA 1616 is preserved inside. Funded by Andrew Carnegie’s £50,000 gift, it opened in 1890 as the first public library in Edinburgh and remains the largest in the city. The architect George Washington Browne won a competition with 37 entries for his design, which spans three levels between the bridge and Cowgate below. Above the main door is Carnegie’s chosen motto, ‘Let there be Light’, echoed on all his libraries. The library houses six distinct collections: Lending, Reference, Music, Art and Design, Edinburgh and Scottish, and the Children’s Library. In 1890 alone, it issued over 440,000 book loans, and its spaces have grown through expansions in 1903, 1930 and 1961. A memorial to Dr Elsie Inglis, founder of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, was unveiled in 2017 on the centenary of her death. The Art and Design Library offers study areas and exhibition space for local artists, while the Children’s Library runs story sessions and book groups for young readers. The Music Library holds Scotland’s largest public collection of music and dance materials, including sheet music, recordings and instruments available for loan. Visitors can borrow saxophones, violins and even digital pianos, with donations encouraged to grow the collection. Three Scottish book sculptures, left anonymously during the 2011 Book Festival, are displayed on the Music Library’s mezzanine. The building also served as a filming location for the TV series Rebus, with scenes shot in the reference section.