William Brown Street, one of Liverpool’s most architecturally uniform thoroughfares, is where you’ll find Liverpool Central Library – the largest of the city’s 22 libraries. The library occupies several adjoining historic buildings, all built in a classical style that matches the surrounding streetscape. Three distinct structures make up the complex: the original William Brown Library and Museum building, completed in 1860 to designs by John Weightman, Surveyor to Liverpool Corporation; the Picton Reading Room, added in 1879; and the Hornby Library, which extended the complex further to the rear in 1906. All three are Grade II* listed buildings and continue to share the site with World Museum Liverpool.
Rebuilding and Reopening
In May 2008, plans were announced to demolish some of the non-historic parts of the complex and replace them with buildings better suited to modern IT services, while the listed buildings would be refurbished. The architecture firm Austin-Smith:Lord led the design work. The main library closed on 23 July 2010, with a temporary service operating from the second floor of the adjacent World Museum during the works. When the refurbished building reopened on 17 May 2013, it included a central atrium topped with a glass dome, open-plan floors and a roof terrace with views across the city centre. At the entrance, a 72-foot granite walkway is inlaid with the titles of literary classics. Hidden within those titles is a riddle – a series of letters picked out in red that spell out the name of a small but notable item in the library’s collection. At the reopening, 500 people attempted to solve it and 200 succeeded; three winners were announced in October 2013. The library has chosen not to reveal the answer publicly, so the puzzle remains live for every new visitor.
Awards and Visitor Numbers
750,000 people visited the museum complex in 2017, and in 2018 Liverpool Central Library won The Bookseller’s Library of the Year Award. The library is a member of the Libraries Together: Liverpool Learning Partnership, which evolved from the Liverpool Libraries Group formed in 1990. Any registered reader at a member library within that partnership can access the other libraries in the group. The area’s library history goes back even further – England’s first subscription library, established in 1758 and latterly known as The Lyceum, Liverpool, operated until 1942 and pre-dated the public library that now occupies William Brown Street.