Gloucester Public Library is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

in Brunswick Road,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

, England, founded in 1897 and is open 6 days a week. It has been listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

since 1973.

History

Originally called the Schools of Science and Art, the original part of the building was built by FullJames Waller & Son in 1872 for the Gloucester Science and Art Society which was mainly funded by subscribers. It also housed a museum of Literature and Science. There were several failed attempts to run a free public library at the Working Men's Institute and a survey from 1887 shows that taxpayers voted against having a free public library. In 1893, the building was extended with a hall built for the Gloucester Science and Art Society called the "Price Memorial Hall". The city corporation brought the book collection of the Gloucester Literary and Scientific Association in 1895 and took over the buildings and running of the school and museum in 1896. In 1897, a free library service was started. The building was extended to the south in 1900 to house the new library, which was built to mark

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the Diamond jubilee, 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to cel ...

and designed by F.W Waller. The building finally opened as a public library in 1900. The library opened with Roland Austin's Gloucestershire Collection of local history which has since moved to the Gloucestershire Archives in 2005. In 1902, the Price Memorial Hall was converted to be used as part of the museum which became The Museum of Gloucester. In 1990 a rare piece of choral music by Sir Edward Elgar was found in a plain envelope in the library's collections, 83 years after it disappeared.

Architecture

The library building is designed in the Neo-Gothic style. It was inspired by the work of George Edmund Street. It consists of five bays parallel to the street with cross-gabled right angle ranges at each end. The two bays and right angle range at the north end of the building are the original part built in 1872 and southern end is the newer part built in 1900. It has two storeys and a cellar. There are two entrances on each of the end bays. All the bays have large ground and first floor windows apart from where the entrances are located. The newer southern entrance has the year 1900 engraved above it, and the southern range has the words "public library" engraved between the ground and first floor windows. Inside the main reading room is braced out to support a glazed atrium roof. The adjoining Price Memorial Hall is built in the

renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style.

Collection

As well as a book collection, the library includes a dedicated Music and Performing Arts collection which has a large collection of vocal scores and orchestral sets.

References

{{Authority control Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Buildings and structures in Gloucester Library buildings completed in 1872 Public Libraries in Gloucestershire