Barrow-in-Furness Main Public Library (more usually known as Barrow Central Library or Barrow Library) is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Beaux-Arts style building located at

Ramsden Square Ramsden Square is a square located at the intersection of Abbey Road and Duke Street in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It marks the boundary of the Central and Hindpool wards and now acts as a major roundabout. Ramsden Square was first ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 202 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Operated since 1974 by Cumbria County Council, it is the largest library in the town and the present structure, designed by J A Charles was originally built as a Carnegie library with support from the Carnegie Foundation. The first library in Barrow was opened on 18 September 1882 in temporary iron buildings in Schneider Square; in 1887 this was transferred to a room within Barrow Town Hall.F Barnes, Barrow and District, page 115, reprinted 1979, published by Barrow Borough Council, no ISBN The growing population meant that a larger building was needed and this was eventually met by the construction of the present accommodation at the junction of Abbey Road with Ramsden Square. The building itself bears a date of 1915 (denoted by an engraving by the main entrance which reads 'ANNO DNI MCMXV'), although delays brought about by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

meant that it wasn't actually completed and opened until 1922. The library formerly housed the Furness Museum which held artefacts both from across the world and also from the local area. The museum (always operated by Barrow Borough Council) was opened in 1930 in an upstairs lecture room. It closed in 1991 and most of the exhibits were eventually moved to larger purpose built premises next to Walney Channel - the Dock Museum. After building modifications in 1998, the library has also worked with the

Cumbria Archive Service Cumbria Archive Service serves the English county of Cumbria. Rather than having just one county record office, Cumbria County Council operates four local record offices, now known as archive centres, in Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Kendal and Whi ...

in the joint operation of a local

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...

or county record office branch. This now shares a public searchroom together with the local studies library. Besides the Central Library there are currently five other libraries in the present borough: Askam, Barrow Island, Dalton, Roose and Walney. A sixth branch at Ormsgill has now been replaced by a library link facility in Ormsgill Children's Centre List of Cumbria libraries, retrieved 5 January 2012

References

{{Authority control Beaux-Arts architecture in the United Kingdom Library buildings completed in 1922

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

Carnegie libraries in England Barrow-in-Furness Main Public Library