On William Brown Street in Liverpool, the Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library is one of the city’s most architecturally striking public buildings, now operating as part of the Liverpool Central Library. The building holds Grade II* listed status on the National Heritage List for England, placing it among the more significant protected structures in the country.
A Library Built for the Electric Age
Sir James Picton, who chaired the William Brown Library and Museum, laid the foundation stone of the Picton Reading Room in 1875. Architect Cornelius Sherlock drew on the British Museum Reading Room as his model, producing a semicircular front with Corinthian columns. That curved facade was not purely decorative – Sherlock chose it to resolve a shift in the alignment of the row of buildings at that point on the street. Completed in 1879, the building was formally opened by the Mayor of Liverpool, Sir Thomas Bland Royden, and holds a notable distinction as the first electrically lit library in the United Kingdom.
The Hornby Addition
In 1906, the Hornby Reading Room was added behind the original structure, designed by Thomas Shelmerdine and named after Hugh Frederick Hornby. Where the Picton Reading Room reflects the confident classical style of the Victorian era, the Hornby interior is decorated in the Edwardian Imperial style, giving the two connected spaces a noticeably different character from one another.