New Free Library Every Street Ancoats

Manchester is rich in Free Libraries, placed all over the city and its suburbs. … The Ancoats Free Library is a rather remarkable building, designed by Mr Waterhouse. It is a structure of common brick, with little of stone, and still less of red bands; simply a hipped parallelogram with two transepts connected with a lean-to; its style Free Gothic, and treatment very masterly. Apropos of this hipped edifice let us add that in Manchester hips are now everywhere formed of the slated plane of the roofs, and all lead rolls or tiles to such features are disused, greatly to the improved effect of the edifices, as anyone would imagine.

THE ANCOATS BRANCH. A new building, which had been erected in Every Street, Ancoats, for the accommodation of that populous district, was opened, but without public ceremony, in September, 1867, the library being removed thither from a shop numbered 190 in Great Ancoats Street. The building, erected from the designs of Mr Alfred Waterhouse, is of brick, with stone facings, is in the Gothic style, and is the prettiest of the smaller branch libraries. The newsroom is 60ft. long by 38ft. 6in. wide, and open to the roof, which is of timber-work. A fine window occupies almost the whole of the end wall. The library is separated by a glass screen from the newsroom, and has shelf-room for about 17,000 volumes. A room above the library is used as a boys' reading-room, and it will seat about 150 lads. This room was opened in January, 1878, and was the first of its kind in Manchester.  [W R Credland Manchester Free Libraries 1899 page 94]

Reference    Manchester Guardian Saturday 5 May 1866 Page 2 (Contracts)
Reference    Building News 28 January 1870 page 68
Reference    W R Credland Manchester Free Libraries 1899 page 94