Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:23:25.258Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

46 - Storehouses of knowledge: the free library movement and the birth of modern library architecture

from Part Seven - The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Simon Pepper
Edited by
Alistair Black  and
Peter Hoare
Get access

Summary

The development of the free library movement throughout the country, and the erection of buildings to meet the requirements of the [Public Libraries] Act, have opened a fresh field and propounded a new problem for the architect. To some extent allied to museums and art schools, with which the library may be associated, the requirements nevertheless demand a distinct treatment, and as every town and village throughout the country is now promoting the erection of a free library, it may be of some practical value if we lay before the architectural reader the main principles that should be kept in view in the design of these buildings, and describe some that have been erected in the Metropolis and elsewhere – a few of which we have illustrated.

With these words Maurice Adams, editor of the Building News, introduced to his fellow architects a lengthy series of articles on the design, planning, heating and lighting of public libraries. The introductory remarks of 1890 will serve very well as an introduction to this chapter, which also seeks to identify a number of the key issues in the architectural evolution of the modern public library.

It is now possible to see the years from 1890 to World War I as critical to this process. The period represented both a construction boom and a coming together of librarians and architects – often initially in collision – in their efforts to evolve building forms that reconciled the practicalities of library management with the formal civic architecture demanded by society.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland , pp. 584 - 608
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allthorpe-Guyton, M. and Stevens, J.. A happy eye: a school of art in Norwich 1845–1982 (Norwich, 1982).Google Scholar
Bowler, C., and Brimblecombe, P.. ‘Environmental pressures on building design and Manchester's John Rylands Library’, Journal of Design History 13 (3) (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brill, B.Macclesfield Library: the first 100 years (Chester, 1976).Google Scholar
Brown, J. D.Manual of library economy (London, 1903).Google Scholar
Burgoyne, F. J.Library construction: architecture, fittings and furniture (London, 1897).Google Scholar
Cole, D.The work of Sir Gilbert Scott (London, 1980).Google Scholar
Convey, J.The Harris Free Public Library and Museum, Preston: 1893–1993 (Preston, 1993).Google Scholar
Cotgreave, A., Views and memoranda of public libraries (London, 1901).Google Scholar
Cox, A. ‘Islington Central Library’, Architectural Review 18 (December 1905).Google Scholar
Cunningham, C. and Waterhouse, P., Alfred Waterhouse 1830–1905 : biography of a practice (Oxford, 1992).Google Scholar
Dawson, J.The Wedgwood Memorial Institute (Burslem, 1894).Google Scholar
Dewe, M. ‘H. T. Hare: Edwardian library architect’, Library Review 27 (Summer 1978).Google Scholar
Fry, W. G., and Munford, W. A.. Louis Stanley Jast: a biographical sketch (London, 1966).Google Scholar
Grant, D. ‘The lighting of the National Gallery’, The British Architect (13 February 1885).Google Scholar
Greenwood, T.Sunday-school and village libraries: with a list of suitable books and hints on management (London, 1892).Google Scholar
Grimes, B.Irish Carnegie libraries: a catalogue and architectural history (Dublin, 1998).Google Scholar
Hare, H. T. and Brown, J. D., ‘Public libraries’, Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects 14 (March 1907).Google Scholar
Hare, H. T. ‘Libraries’, Builders' Journal 25 (20 March 1907).Google Scholar
Hare, H. T. ‘Some recent public libraries’, Architectural Review 24 (2) (1908).Google Scholar
Hewitt, H. ‘Confronting the modern city: the Manchester Free Public Library, 1850–80’, Urban History 27 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jast, L. S.The planning of a great library (London, 1927).Google Scholar
Kelly, T.A history of public libraries in Great Britain 1845–1965 (London, 1973).Google Scholar
,Liverpool City Libraries. Descriptive handbook with illustrations and plans (Liverpool, 1912).
Macdonald, J. J.Passmore Edwards institutions: founding and opening ceremonies (London, 1900).Google Scholar
Manners, Lady J.Encouraging experiences of reading and recreation rooms (London, 1886).Google Scholar
Manners, Lady J.Some advantages of easily accessible reading and recreation rooms and free libraries (London, 1885).Google Scholar
Millar, A. H.Jubilee of the Albert Institute 1867–1917: a record of the work of fifty years (Dundee, 1917).Google Scholar
Nicholson, E. W. B., and Tedder, H. R. (eds.). Transactions and proceedings of the conference of librarians … 1877 (London, 1878).Google Scholar
Ogle, J. J.The extension of the free libraries Act to small places (London, 1887).Google Scholar
Pepper, S. ‘A department store of learning’, Times Literary Supplement (9 May 1986).Google Scholar
Poole, W. F. ‘Small library buildings’, Library Journal 10 (1885).Google Scholar
Pugh, L. ‘Some theoretical bases of convergence’, New Review of Academic Librarianship 3 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, E., and Walters, G.. ‘Swansea libraries in the nineteenth century’, Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society 10 (1966–71).Google Scholar
Reilly, C. H. ‘Manchester's Reference Library’, Building 9 (1934).Google Scholar
Rowley, J. E. ‘New technology in libraries’, in Bromley, and Allott, (eds.), British librarianship and information work 1986–1990, vol. 2.
Smith, P. ‘Networking in public libraries: collaborative developments at London and South East Region’, Vine 98 (1995).Google Scholar
Sturges, P. ‘Beer and books: Michael Thomas Bass, Derby Public Library and the philanthropy of the beerage’, Libraries and Culture 31 (1996).Google Scholar
Swale, A. ‘The terracotta of the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem’, Journal of the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society 2 (1987).Google Scholar
Van Slyck, A. A.Free to all: Carnegie libraries and American culture 1890–1920 (Chicago and London, 1995).Google Scholar
Wheeler, J. L., and Githens, A. M.. American public library building (New York, 1941).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×