The Weston Library is part of the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

, the main

research library A research library is a library that contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects.(Young, 1983; p. 188) A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of top ...

of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, reopened within the former New Bodleian Library building on the corner of Broad Street and

Parks Road Parks Road is a road in Oxford, England, with several Oxford University colleges along its route. It runs north–south from the Banbury Road and Norham Gardens at the northern end, where it continues into Bradmore Road, to the junction with Bro ...

in central

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History

From 1937 to 1940, Sir

Giles Gilbert Scott Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and de ...

worked on the New Bodleian Library, in

Broad Street, Oxford Broad Street is a wide street in central Oxford, England, just north of the former city wall. The street is known for its bookshops, including the original Blackwell's bookshop at number 50, located here due to the University of Oxford. Among re ...

. It is not generally considered his finest work. Needing to provide storage for millions of books without building higher than the surrounding structures, Scott devised a construction going deep into the earth, behind two elevations no higher than those around them. His biographer A. S. G. Butler commented, "In an attempt to be polite to these – which vary from late Gothic to

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

Tudor – Scott produced a not very impressive

neo-Jacobean The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...

design". A later biographer,

Gavin Stamp Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian. Education Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then ...

, praises the considerable technical achievement of keeping the building low in scale by building underground, but agrees that aesthetically the building is not among Scott's most successful designs.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

dismisses it as "neither one thing nor the other". The building was constructed of

Bladon Bladon is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Glyme about northwest of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. It is where Sir Winston Churchill is buried. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded the parish's ...

stone with

Clipsham Clipsham is a small village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is in the northeast of Rutland, close to the county boundary with Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish was 120 at the 2001 census increasing to ...

dressings and was opened by King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

. The

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

donated 60% of the £1 million cost for the new library building. It included administrative and reading rooms, together with an 11-storey

bookstack In library science and architecture, a stack or bookstack (often referred to as a library building's ''stacks'') is a book storage area, as opposed to a reading area. More specifically, this term refers to a narrow-aisled, multilevel system of ir ...

, three of which are underground. This was connected with the original Bodleian Library underground by a conveyor belt system for books. It is still possible to walk underground between the

Radcliffe Camera The Radcliffe Camera (colloquially known as the "Rad Cam" or "The Camera"; from Latin , meaning 'room') is a building of the University of Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in a Baroque style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radclif ...

and the new library building. In the early 21st century, the building was rebuilt internally to the design of

WilkinsonEyre WilkinsonEyre is an international architecture practice based in London, England. In 1983 Chris Wilkinson (architect), Chris Wilkinson founded Chris Wilkinson Architects, he partnered with Jim Eyre (architect), Jim Eyre in 1987 and the practice ...

behind its original façade to provide improved storage facilities for rare and fragile material, as well as better facilities for readers and visitors. It reopened to readers as the Weston Library on 21 March 2015.

Richard Ovenden Richard Ovenden FRHistS (; born 25 March 1964) is a British librarian and author. He currently serves as the 25th Bodley's Librarian in the University of Oxford, having been appointed in 2014. He is also the current head of the University of Ox ...

(

Bodley's Librarian The head of the Bodleian Library, the main library at the University of Oxford, is known as Bodley's Librarian: Sir Thomas Bodley, as founder, gave his name to both the institution and the position. Although there had been a university library a ...

) awarded the

Bodley Medal The Bodley Medal is awarded by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University to individuals who have made "outstanding contributions ... to the worlds of communications and literature" and who have helped the library achieve "the vision of its foun ...

to Professor Stephen Hawking and

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

as part of the official opening ceremony. The transformed library has been generally well-received, being described as a "hey presto moment for the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

" by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper. In July 2016, the building was shortlisted for the

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The ...

for excellence in architecture.

Gallery

File:Weston Library Exterior by John Cairns 20.3.15-67.jpg, The Weston Library main entrance on Broad Street File:Weston Library Blackwell Hall by John Cairns 6.7.15-61.jpg, The Blackwell Hall inside the library File:Weston Library exterior by John Cairns 6.7.15-3.jpg, External view of the gift shop File:Weston Library Blackwell Hall cafe by John Cairns 6.7.15-123.jpg, View of the cafe

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weston Library 2015 establishments in England Libraries established in 2015 Library buildings completed in 1940 Libraries of the University of Oxford Bodleian Library

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links