John Rylands Library

In the middle of Manchester's busy Deansgate, the John Rylands Library looks less like a Victorian library than a cathedral of books: a dark red sandstone building bristling with pinnacles, tracery and turrets, and inside it a long vaulted reading room lit by tall windows. It was conceived by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands as a memorial to her husband, John Rylands, a Manchester textile manufacturer. She bought the site in 1889, construction ran from 1890 to 1899, the building was inaugurated on 6 October 1899 and it opened to readers on 1 January 1900.

The architect, Basil Champneys, worked in a Neo-Gothic manner touched by the Arts and Crafts movement. Two Cumbrian sandstones give the building its character: a dark red stone from near Penrith on the outside, and a softer sand-to-pink stone from Dalston for the interiors, which glow warmly under the vaults. The main reading room was deliberately lifted to the first floor and set back from the street, so that readers would be removed from the noise and soot of the industrial city; oriel windows and a clerestory flood it with light. The library was also one of the first buildings in Manchester to use electric light, producing its own direct-current supply until 1950.

The collections rank among the richest in Britain. Mrs Rylands bought the celebrated Spencer library of some 43,000 volumes in 1892, including early printed books such as a Gutenberg Bible and the Mainz Psalter, and in 1901 she added the manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, more than 6,000 items in many languages. Among the treasures is the Rylands Papyrus P52, a scrap of the Gospel of John widely regarded as the earliest known fragment of the New Testament. In 1972 the library merged with that of the University of Manchester, which still runs it. The building has been Grade I listed since 1994, and its collection is designated as being of national importance.

Manchester itself grew in the 19th century into the first great industrial city of the world, built on cotton, and the library is one of the most ambitious civic gifts of that era, standing a short walk from the Town Hall and the cathedral.

Getting there

The John Rylands Library stands on Deansgate in Manchester city centre. The nearest airport is Manchester Airport (MAN), about 15 km to the south. Manchester Piccadilly, Victoria and Deansgate railway stations, as well as several Metrolink tram stops, are within walking distance.