The old Swansea Central Library in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

in Britain was a public lending and reference library located in Alexandra Road, in the Swansea city centre. The old library, a Grade II listed building, is now occupied by Swansea Metropolitan University's Welsh School of Architectural Glass.

History

The library was designed by Henry Holtom of

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

in the Italian classical style and opened in 1887 by the former and future Prime Minister

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

. The circular reference library, in diameter, has a domed top, feet high in the centre. The collections provided a repository of source material for research on Swansea in particular and Wales in general. The

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

Collection, established in the early 1950s, consisted of over 3,000 books and periodical articles written by, or about, the Swansea-born poet and author. The library was closed on 6 November 2007. After its closure, the interior of the library building, including the domed reading room, was used extensively by

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

as a location for the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' episodes "

Silence in the Library "Silence in the Library" is the eighth episode of the fourth series of the revived British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 31 May 2008. It is the first of a two-part story; the second part, ...

" and "

Forest of the Dead "Forest of the Dead" is the ninth episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast by BBC One on 7 June 2008. It is the second of a two-part story; the first part, "Silence in ...

". The new Swansea Central Library, opened in March 2008, is located in the Civic Centre alongside the

West Glamorgan , HQ= County Hall, Swansea , Government= West Glamorgan County Council (abolished 1996) , Status= , Start= 1974 , End= 1996 , Arms= ''Coat of arms of Wes ...

Archives Service. In 2007,

Swansea Metropolitan University , students = 5,765 , undergrad = 4,520 , postgrad = 1,075 , other = 175 FE , city = Swansea , country = Wales, UK , campus = Urban , address = Mount PleasantSwansea SA1 6ED , we ...

announced that they were planning on acquiring the Old Central Library building to become part of the university. With funding assistance from the EU, Swansea Metropolitan University gave the building a £9.69 million renovation, almost £5 million over the budget, turning it into the new Welsh School of Architectural Glass, in 2015. A spokesman for the university stated that additional works were undertaken to meet revised requirements of the ‘listed’ elements of the building, including the round reading room, the reinstatement of the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

to the central tower (damaged by World War II bombing) and works to the ‘party’ walls.

References

External links

Swansea Libraries website
{{Authority control Library buildings completed in 1887 Former library buildings in Wales Grade II listed buildings in Swansea Swansea Metropolitan University