Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library
Coordinates: 53°24′36″N 2°58′48″W / 53.410°N 2.980°W
![]() | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2010) |
Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library | |
---|---|
![]() Picton Reading Room, William Brown Street | |
![]() | |
General information | |
Town or city | Liverpool |
Country | England |
Construction started | 1875 |
Completed | 1906 |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Cornelius Sherlock (Picton Reading Room) Thomas Shelmerdine (Hornby Library) |
The Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library are two grade II* listed buildings on William Brown Street, Liverpool, England, which now form part of the Liverpool Central Library.
The chairman of the William Brown Library and Museum, Sir James Picton, laid the foundation stone of the Picton Reading Room in 1875. It was designed by Cornelius Sherlock, and modelled after the British Museum Reading Room, and was the first electrically lit library in the UK. It was completed in 1879 formally opened by the Mayor of Liverpool, Sir Thomas Bland Royden. The front is semicircular with Corinthian columns, and the shape was chosen by the architect to cover the change in the axis of the row of buildings at this point. The Hornby Reading Room (named after Hugh Frederick Hornby) by Thomas Shelmerdine was added in 1906. It stands behind the older building and the interior is decorated in the Edwardian Imperial style.[1]
Gallery[]
Picton Reading Room[]
Bust of Sir James Picton
View of the ground floor
Seen from the gallery
Interior of the dome
Doors to Hornby Library
Hornby Library[]
Bust of Hugh Frederick Hornby
Library interior
View from first floor gallery
The Oak Room, housing a copy of Audubon's The Birds of America
See also[]
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library. |
References[]
- ^ Pevsner, N. (1969) Lancashire; 1: the industrial and commercial south. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books; p. 159
External links[]
- Public libraries in Merseyside
- Buildings and structures in Liverpool
- Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
- Grade II* listed library buildings
- Library buildings completed in 1879
- Library buildings completed in 1906
- Libraries in Liverpool
- 1879 establishments in England
- Merseyside building and structure stubs