Manchester Free Library
The Manchester Free Library opened on 5 September 1852 in Manchester, England.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. It was the first public library in England to be set up under the provisions of the Public Libraries Act 1850,[a] which allowed local authorities to impose a local tax of one penny to pay for the service.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The terms of the act required that a poll of ratepayers had to be held before the local authority was allowed to spend money on public libraries, and at least two-thirds had to vote in favour. In Manchester's case only 40 of the more than 4000 eligible voters opposed.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
The project was the initiative of John Potter, first Mayor of Manchester, and fellow members of the Portico Library, who started a fund to raise money for the purchase of books and a suitable building to house them.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The founding committee included the Bishop of Manchester and the Rev. Thomas Rothwell Bently, the rector of St. Matthew's Church, Campfield. The library was housed in the House of Science in Campfield, close to the present-day site of the Museum of Science and Industry's Air and Space Hall.[1]Template:R/superscript On its opening it had a stock of 18,028 books, purchased at a cost of £4156 (equivalent to £502,000 in 2025Template:Inflation-fn).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. So busy was it during its first week that a police officer was assigned to control the crowd around the borrowing desk.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Edward Edwards was the first librarian.[1]Template:R/superscript
The Campfield library was replaced in 1882 by a new building at the corner of Deansgate and Liverpool Road, which is now home to the Spanish Instituto Cervantes.[2]
See also
References
Notes
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- ^ The Royal Museum and Public Library in Salford was the first public library in England, (the first public library in the UK was opened over 200 years earlier in Perthshire, Scotland) opening in 1850, but it was set up under the provisions of the Museum Act, not the Public Libraries Act.
Citations
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- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Before Central Library: Campfield", Manchester City Council, retrieved 22 May 2013
- ^ Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".
Bibliography
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- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Aspin, Chris (1995), The First industrial Society: Lancashire 1750–1850, Carnegie Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85936-016-3
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.William E. A. Axon (1870). "Statistical Notes on the Free Town-Libraries of Great Britain and the Continent". Journal of the Statistical Society of London. 33 (3): 327–365 – via HathiTrust. (Includes section about the Manchester Free Library)
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Briggs, Asa (1965), Victorian Cities, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-07922-9
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Edwards, Edward (1869), Free town libraries, their formation, management, and history, Trübner & Co.
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