Birmingham Central Library

Information about Birmingham Central Library

Building
Birmingham Central Library

Type	Library
Architectural Style	Brutalist
Location	Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, England
Coordinates	Coordinates:
Construction
Completed	1974
Design Team
Architect	John Madin

Birmingham Central Library is the main public library in Birmingham, England.

The main body containing the music library, collections, and reference library is located on several floors over Paradise Forum, with the main entrance and lending section in Chamberlain Square.

History and earlier building

The first municipal library occupied the northern half of a site on Edmund Street and facing the Town Hall. The site had been acquired from the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI) after they had commenced construction of their own institute building on the southern half, which was to include a public library - a referendum under the Free Libraries Act 1850 on the creation of a municipal library having failed. A second vote in 1860 agreed on the building of a library, causing the Corporation and the BMI to cooperate in a joint site. A design by E. M. Barry had been chosen by the BMI but was too expensive for the Corporation, so they chose William Martin to design all but the façade. The library was opened in 1865, but during the building of an extension in 1879 a fire caused extensive damage, destroying most of the 50,000 reference books.

The library was rebuilt on the same site by Martin & Chamberlain and opened in 1882. As the number of books increased, the Council approved the creation of a replacement library in 1938, but it was not until the late 1960s, and the need for the new Inner Ring Road that action was taken, and the current building constructed alongside. The original library and the BMI were demolished and the site is now part of the UCE Birmingham Conservatoire and its gardens. The site the current central library is now situated was originally the Mason College and Liberal Club.

Collections

Special features include the Boulton and Watt collection, the Bournville Village Trust Archive and the Railway and Canal Historical Society Library.

The specialist Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed in 1882 by John Henry Chamberlain for the previous Central Library. It contained several early William Shakespeare folio editions. When the old building was demolished in 1974 Chamberlain's room was dismantled and fitted into the new concrete shell of the new library. It is in an extension of the main building alongside Birmingham City University music department's Adrian Boult Hall and used for Birmingham Conservatoire concerts. The room now contains the secondary collection of Shakespearean books and is mainly used as a small meeting room.

Architecture

The 1974 Brutalist building designed by John Madin (the third library on the site), an inverted ziggurat similar to the earlier Boston City Hall, has famously been described by Prince Charles as "looking more like a place for burning books, than keeping them". Nonetheless, the Twentieth Century Society is campaigning for its retention.^[1] Paradise Forum, containing shops and bars, was created in 1988 when the windy space under the hollow main building was enclosed and the pedestrian access to Centenary Square improved.

Library of Birmingham

A replacement library, to be called the "Library of Birmingham", on a new campus in the city centre's "Eastside" was planned. and Birmingham City Council commissioned the Richard Rogers Partnership to develop the concept designs. However, for financial reasons this plan has been shelved. The Council's current suggestion is that the Library be split between a new building built between the Rep theatre and Baskerville House at Centenary Square, which as of January 2006 is a public car park (to house the main lending library) and a building at Millennium Point in "Eastside" (to house the archives and special collections).

In August 2006, the Council confirmed the area between the Rep and Baskerville House as the future site for the library. Capita Symonds has been appointed as Project Managers for the Library of Birmingham. The council's intention is to create a "world class" landmark civic building in Centenary Square.^[2]

However, it is possible that two-sites idea will be scrapped and the archives and special collections will move to the site at Centenary Square.^[3]

Sources and references

1. ^ One step closer to save Birmingham Central Library? - press release from the Twentieth Century Society (28 October 2006)
2. ^ Capita Symonds appointed as Project Managers for the Library of Birmingham - Press Release by Birmingham.gov.uk (1 September 2006)
3. ^ Library plans could be shelved - Birmingham Post (Jan 24 2007)

Joe Holyoak. All About Victoria Square. ISBN 0-901657-14-X.
Stuart Davies. By the Gains of Industry - Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1885-1985. ISBN 0-7093-0131-6.
Rachel E Waterhouse (1954). The Birmingham and Midland Institute 1854-1954.

External links

library is a collection of information, sources, resources, and services: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books.
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Brutalism is an architectural style that spawned from the modernist architectural movement and which flourished from the 1950s to the 1970s. The early style was inspired largely by the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, and in particular his Unité d'Habitation (1952) and the
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Chamberlain Square is a public open space in central Birmingham, England (grid reference SP066869 ), named after Joseph Chamberlain.

Its features include:

Birmingham Central Library
Paradise Forum (beneath the reference library)

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City of Birmingham
Birmingham Skyline viewed from Centenary Square

Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname: "Brum = Scum", "Brummagem", "Second City", "Workshop of the World", "City of a Thousand Trades"
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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John Madin is an English architect. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham, circa 1925. His company, known as John H D Madin & Partners from 1962 and the John Madin Design Group from 1968, were active in Birmingham for over 30 years.
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Paradise Forum in central Birmingham, England is an arena under the Central Library containing bars, restaurants, small shops and stalls, and forming the main pedestrian thoroughfare between Centenary Square and the central shopping and business area of Birmingham.
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Chamberlain Square is a public open space in central Birmingham, England (grid reference SP066869 ), named after Joseph Chamberlain.

Its features include:

Birmingham Central Library
Paradise Forum (beneath the reference library)

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Edmund Street is a street located in Birmingham, England.

Edmund Street is one of a series of roads on the old Colmore Estate which originally stretched from Temple Row in the city centre, around St Phillip's Cathedral, to the northern end of Newhall Street.
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Birmingham Town Hall

The town hall after being refurbished seen from Chamberlain Square
Building

Type Concert and meeting venue
Architectural Style Classical

Location Victoria Square, Birmingham, England
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Birmingham and Midland Institute (grid reference SP066870 ), now on Margaret Street in the city centre of Birmingham, England was a pioneer of adult scientific and technical education (General Industrial, Commercial and Music) and today offers Arts and Science lectures, exhibitions
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Edward Middleton Barry (1830 – 27 January 1880) was an English architect of the 19th century. The third son, and assistant, of Sir Charles Barry, Edward completed his father’s work on the Palace of Westminster and Halifax Town Hall after his death in 1860, but was also
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William Martin (1829-1900) was a Victorian architect who worked in Birmingham, England, particularly in the practice Martin & Chamberlain.

Born in Somerset in 1829 he joined a Birmingham architect called Thomson Plevins, and then became a partner of D. R.
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John Henry Chamberlain (J. H. Chamberlain), William Martin, and Frederick Martin were architects in Victorian Birmingham, England. Their names are attributed singly or pairs to many red brick and terracotta buildings, particularly 41 of the the forty-odd Birmingham
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The A4400 is a main road in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The current A4400 comprises parts of Suffolk Street, Great Charles Street and St Chads Queenway in the city centre.
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Birmingham Conservatoire is an international conservatoire. It is one of the faculties of Birmingham City University and the only one out of the nine conservatoires in the United Kingdom that is a university faculty.
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Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt, formed in 1775 to make steam engines at their Soho Foundry in Smethwick, near Birmingham, England. The partnership was passed to two of their sons in 1800.
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Bournville Village Trust is an organisation that was created to maintain and improve the suburb of Bournville, located in Birmingham. However, during the 20th century it expanded its geographical coverage to include developments in Shenley Green, Lightmoor in Telford, Bloomsbury in
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The Railway and Canal Historical Society was founded in the UK in 1954 to bring together all those interested in the history of transport, with particular reference to railways and waterways in Britain, its main objects being to promote historical research and to raise the standard
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Birmingham Central Library

Building

Type Library
Architectural Style Brutalist

Location Chamberlain Square, Birmingham, England

Coordinates Coordinates:
Construction

Completed 1974
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John Henry Chamberlain (June 21, 1831 – October 22, 1883), generally known professionally as J H Chamberlain, was a nineteenth century English architect.
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William Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born: April 1564 (exact date unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died: 23 March 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
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Birmingham City University (formerly Birmingham Polytechnic and the University of Central England in Birmingham) is a University in the city of Birmingham, England.

The main university campus is located in Perry Barr, Birmingham.
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Adrian Boult Hall is the main concert hall of the UCE Birmingham Conservatoire in central Birmingham, England. It is named after the conductor Adrian Boult.

Situated in the Birmingham Conservatoire main building in Paradise Circus, it is used for public concerts by students
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