Our beautiful Grade II listed library looked tired and (dare we say it?) a bit scruffy when it closed its doors in March 2024, but a wonderful and impressive refurbishment has protected and restored the building for future generations of Chorlton residents.

 

Anyone who has walked past the library knows its familiar dome, but it’s always been invisible on the inside! That’s about to change:  as part of the structural improvements the interior of the dome is finally about to be revealed!

 

The library, which opened in 1914 , was a gift from the famous Scottish-American benefactor Andrew Carnegie and one of 660 Carnegie Libraries across the UK and Ireland. Carnegie made a vast fortune in steel and his name lives on through more than  2,500 public libraries he funded here and in the United States.

 

Chorlton’s library was designed by the City Architect, Henry Price (1867–1944),  who also designed Didsbury Library. Did you know that his original plan drawings for the library were lost when the Titanic went down in the Atlantic? 

 

Some 112 years later, the current works also include improvements to the  stonework and windows, as well as the renewal of electrical and mechanical systems, to help the city meet its target of becoming zero carbon by 2038.  There’ll also be treats and surprises for library users of all ages inside. We can’t wait to see it!

 

Also on the library team’s to-do list is the meeting room, which has been used as a temporary library HQ over the last twelve months. That will also be fully refurbished during the summer: community meeting and event spaces are hard to find in Chorlton, so it will be great to have it back again!

 

Big thanks to all the teams who’ve worked on the project over the last couple of years (work begins long before the builders move in!). We treasure our library and can’t wait to see it back in business!