Withington
Library stands at the junction of Wilmslow Road
and Wellington Road.>Before this purpose-built
library, there was a lending library as far back as 1861
in an upstairs room in Withington Public Hall, a small
building which stands on Burton Road. This had 1,200
books in 1895 - a
considerable number at that time.
A one-time librarian, Miss Starkey, used to
encourage Robert Donat, before he became the
famous actor and film-star, to use the library
to improve his chances in the profession by
practising reading. Withington library was one
of the first in Manchester to have a young
people's reading room. You had to be at least 9
years old and in Standard 3 to join. There was a
specially-appointed librarian for young people
available at certain times. If you qualified to
join, she would give you a ticket saying when
you could use the library to read books, but not
to borrow them.
In 2018, the library interior underwent extensive
refurbishment with a restoration of period features.
The library closed for an extended period so that
asbestos, which was found in the building, could be
removed.
Fletcher Moss, of the Old Parsonage, Didsbury, campaigned for a library for Withington during his time as alderman. Nothing resulted. The following quote from Fletcher Moss's Fifty Years Public Work in Didsbury indicates the state-of-mind of some at the time:
On 13th October 1911, a library service was set up by the City Council in a house on the site of the present building. This had a stock of 1,861 books, as well as a newsroom. It soon became clear that a more substantial service in a purpose-built building was required (details here and below from Manchester Library Services: Seventy Years of Withington Library 1927-1997). The present building was designed by Henry Price (1867-1944), a council architect who also designed, at an earlier date, Withington Baths."In 1895 and several succeeding years, I moved a resolution for the adoption of the Public Libraries Act and was always sat upon by the conservative majority. Mr Joe Lunn (Conservative builder) of Withington told us that there was a library in Withington in an upper room somewhere behind the White Lion and all the folk that ever went into it were a few women a week. What was the good of having another library?"
The library is one of
the many "Carnegie libraries" in the UK, partly
financed by a fund set up by the Scottish-
American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie (the donation
was £5,000, from a total cost of £15,500). The
building is in an unusual neoclassical style and is
well designed for the tight corner site, with a very
attractive and well-proportioned frontage (see above)
including a hexagonal cupola in the entrance hall (see
left). The building was opened in 1927 by the Earl of
Elgin and Kincardine (Treasurer of the Carnegie UK
Trust and President of the Library Association) who
then borrowed the first book, a copy of James
Tait's Medieval Manchester and the Beginnings
of Lancashire (1904). Inside the library,
there is a plaque recording the opening event (see
below). Initially, trees were planted at the front of
the building. However, in a few weeks they had
disappeared and were never recovered.
