Branch Free Library Chester Road Hulme
MANCHESTER FREE LIBRARIES - A new branch reading room and boys’ library in connection with the Manchester Free Libraries has been erected in Chester Road Hulme from designs by Mr J Gibbon Sankey, architect, of this city. There will be no lending library in connection with this branch but a small library of about 500 volumes especially selected will be utilised by readers in the rooms. The branch will be supplied with a large number of newspapers daily and weekly, magazines weekly, fortnightly and monthly, and other serials. Mr Harry Rawson, deputy chairman of the Free Libraries Committee will formally open the room on Saturday 31st inst. [Manchester Guardian 22 March 1894 page 6]
THE NEW READING ROOM IN CHESTER ROAD: OPENING CEREMONY. On Saturday afternoon the new reading room erected in Chester Road by the Free Libraries Committee pf the Corporation. The building is nearly opposite St George’s Church and consists of two storeys, the lower one forming a boys’ reading room and the upper one a general reading room. In connection with these there are the usual attendants’ rooms, heating chamber etc. The general reading room will comfortably accommodate 150 adults and every convenience has been provided for the comfort of readers. No effort has been spared to make the room as beautiful as possible in the simple way rendered necessary by the sum allowed for its erection. A new feature of the arrangement is a space allocated for books of reference, maps etc. The shelves for these are arranged under a canopy, a feature of the interior specially designed y the architect to soften away the ugliness caused by a right of light possessed by the adjoining landowner. Instead of being an eyesore, as at first anticipated, the canopy adds to the appearance of the room, and appears to have been specially arranged for the accommodation and handling of the books of reference. The fittings and furniture are made of ash, and the wood has been stained and polished an agreeable shade of green. The heating and ventilation have been carried out by Messrs C C McNair and Company, and by the process adopted the whole of the air in the rooms can be changed twice per hour, there being a continual inflow of warm fresh moistened air. The exterior to the building facing Chester Road is faced with Ruabon bricks, with the windows, doors, parapets etc in Doulton-ware, terra cotta. The architect from whose designs and under whose superintendence the building has been erected is Mr J G Sankey, of York Street, Manchester, and the contractors are Messrs F and E Haynes, of Denmark Road. [Manchester Guardian 2 April 1894 page 3]
Reference Manchester Guardian 22 March 1894 page 6
Reference Manchester Guardian 2 April 1894 page 3- opening