Brotherton Library
Encyclopedia
The Brotherton Library is a 1936 Grade II listed Beaux-Arts building with some art deco
fittings, located on the main campus
of the University of Leeds
. It was designed by the firm of Lanchester & Lodge, and is named after Edward Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton
, who in 1927 donated £100,000 to the university as funding for its first purpose-built library.
The Brotherton Library is now the principal component of what has become Leeds University Library. Initially, it contained all of the university's books and manuscripts, with the exception of books housed in the separate Medical Library and Clothworkers' (Textile) Library. Currently, its contents cover the main collections in arts, social sciences and law, and various Special Collections. It also houses the University Library's administration. Science and engineering books and a multiple-copy Student Library are located in the Edward Boyle Library, opened in 1975. The Health Sciences Library, housed in the Worsley Building since 1977, contains the University Library's medical and related collections, with a small satellite library at St James's University Hospital. Leeds University Library is also responsible for the University Archives and The University Gallery.
of College Hall, an 1894 building of the Yorkshire College, which was originally founded as the Leeds School of Medicine
in 1831. The college became part of the Victoria University
in 1887, and College Hall became the Great Hall of the University of Leeds
when the university received its royal charter
in 1904.
Fanny Passavant, the first Librarian of the college and subsequently of the university, retired in 1919. At that point, the library contained approximately 65,000 volumes, but the Great Hall's undercroft had long been full and the overflow of books had been distributed around the campus. Passavant's successor, Dr Richard Offor, was charged with the task of building a new University Library, and Lord Brotherton agreed to fund it. Brotherton laid the building's foundation stone in 1930, but died later in the same year. His collection of some 80,000 rare books and manuscripts was given to the university in 1936, along with an endowment to enable appropriate purchases to be made in the future. A suite of rooms to house the Brotherton Collection formed part of the new Brotherton Library.
, Thomas Geoffry Lucas
and Thomas Arthur Lodge
("Lanchester, Lucas & Lodge") was selected to provide "a monumental Beaux-Arts composition which would completely obscure from the outside world all the existing regrettable Waterhouse
buildings with grand red brick and Portland stone
". The new buildings, started in 1929, were initially to consist of a Chemistry and Engineering building (opened in 1932) the Brotherton Library (opened in 1936) and the Parkinson Building
(opened, eventually, after World War II, in 1950). Lucas had left the firm in 1930, so the new university buildings and a number of later ones, up to 1964, were credited to Lanchester & Lodge.
The façade
s of the Chemistry and Parkinson buildings, facing the main road, are of Portland stone, but the exterior of the Brotherton Library is of unadorned red brick. The reason for this was that it was to be accessed through the Parkinson Building, and there was no reason for it to have a Portland stone exterior when the library would not be easily visible. However, the delay in the Parkinson's construction, initially because of a shortage of funding, meant that the Brotherton's plain exterior was on view for fourteen years.
The contrast between the exterior and the interior of the Brotherton could not be greater. Through the glass doors leading from the Parkinson Building into the library, a small entrance hall with a short flight of steps leads up to swing doors which open on to a large cylindrical space surmounted by a concrete dome. The diameter of the room, 160 feet (48.8 metres), was deliberately made wider than the 140 feet of the British Museum Reading Room
, on which it was modelled. Twenty columns of green Swedish marble, each comprising three drums weighing three tons each, support the coffer
ed dome, and there is a balcony with a decorative iron balustrade and an elaborate art deco electrolier
suspended from the dome's centre. On the main floor, the bookshelves are mostly located in bays underneath the balcony; the balcony has an ambulatory
providing access to the various subject-areas and to the Brotherton Collection at the rear.
Beneath the main floor of the library are two further circular floors. In 1993, a three-floor extension at the rear, the West Building, was opened to provide more space for readers, books and library staff, and to unite the Brotherton Collection with other Special Collections that have accumulated over the years.
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
fittings, located on the main campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
of the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
. It was designed by the firm of Lanchester & Lodge, and is named after Edward Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton
Edward Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton
Edward Allen Brotherton, 1st Baron Brotherton , known as Sir Edward Brotherton, Bt, between 1918 and 1929, was an industrialist in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England and a benefactor to the University of Leeds and other causes...
, who in 1927 donated £100,000 to the university as funding for its first purpose-built library.
The Brotherton Library is now the principal component of what has become Leeds University Library. Initially, it contained all of the university's books and manuscripts, with the exception of books housed in the separate Medical Library and Clothworkers' (Textile) Library. Currently, its contents cover the main collections in arts, social sciences and law, and various Special Collections. It also houses the University Library's administration. Science and engineering books and a multiple-copy Student Library are located in the Edward Boyle Library, opened in 1975. The Health Sciences Library, housed in the Worsley Building since 1977, contains the University Library's medical and related collections, with a small satellite library at St James's University Hospital. Leeds University Library is also responsible for the University Archives and The University Gallery.
Before the Brotherton
The predecessor of the Brotherton was a library located in the undercroftUndercroft
An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground area which is relatively open to the sides, but covered by the building above.- History :While some...
of College Hall, an 1894 building of the Yorkshire College, which was originally founded as the Leeds School of Medicine
Leeds School of Medicine
Leeds School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The School of Medicine was founded in 1831, before the Yorkshire College which became the university, and now forms part of the university's Faculty of Medicine and Health...
in 1831. The college became part of the Victoria University
Victoria University (UK)
Victoria University was an English federal university established by Royal Charter, 20 April 1880 at Manchester: a university for the North of England open to affiliation by colleges such as Owens College which immediately did so. University College Liverpool joined the University in 1884, followed...
in 1887, and College Hall became the Great Hall of the University of Leeds
Great Hall of the University of Leeds
The Great Hall is a grade II listed Gothic Revival building located at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The building is primarily used for formal occasions such as graduation ceremonies and university students' examinations. Its undercroft was previously utilised to house the...
when the university received its royal charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
in 1904.
Fanny Passavant, the first Librarian of the college and subsequently of the university, retired in 1919. At that point, the library contained approximately 65,000 volumes, but the Great Hall's undercroft had long been full and the overflow of books had been distributed around the campus. Passavant's successor, Dr Richard Offor, was charged with the task of building a new University Library, and Lord Brotherton agreed to fund it. Brotherton laid the building's foundation stone in 1930, but died later in the same year. His collection of some 80,000 rare books and manuscripts was given to the university in 1936, along with an endowment to enable appropriate purchases to be made in the future. A suite of rooms to house the Brotherton Collection formed part of the new Brotherton Library.
Architecture and building history
In the 1920s, the university had initiated an Architectural Prize Scheme in order to provide architecture worthy of the institution's increasing prestige. In 1927, the firm of Henry Vaughan LanchesterHenry Vaughan Lanchester
Henry Vaughan Lanchester was an English architect.Lanchester was born in St John's Wood, London. His father Henry Jones Lanchester was an established architect. The son was articled with his father, but also worked in the offices of London architects F.J. Eadle, T.W. Cutler and George Sherrin...
, Thomas Geoffry Lucas
Thomas Geoffry Lucas
Thomas Geoffry Lucas , generally known as Geoffry Lucas, but often found incorrectly spelt as Geoffrey Lucas, was a 20th century English architect...
and Thomas Arthur Lodge
Thomas Arthur Lodge
Thomas Arthur Lodge was a British architect.He studied at the Architectural Association in London until 1909, and was then articled to Thomas Geoffry Lucas. After a time spent with a number of different firms, Lucas and Henry Vaughan Lanchester took Lodge into partnership in 1923. Lucas retired in...
("Lanchester, Lucas & Lodge") was selected to provide "a monumental Beaux-Arts composition which would completely obscure from the outside world all the existing regrettable Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse was a British architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture. He is perhaps best known for his design for the Natural History Museum in London, and Manchester Town Hall, although he also built a wide variety of other buildings throughout the...
buildings with grand red brick and Portland stone
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...
". The new buildings, started in 1929, were initially to consist of a Chemistry and Engineering building (opened in 1932) the Brotherton Library (opened in 1936) and the Parkinson Building
Parkinson Building
The Parkinson Building is a grade II listed art deco building and campanile located at the University of Leeds in the West Yorkshire region of England...
(opened, eventually, after World War II, in 1950). Lucas had left the firm in 1930, so the new university buildings and a number of later ones, up to 1964, were credited to Lanchester & Lodge.
The façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s of the Chemistry and Parkinson buildings, facing the main road, are of Portland stone, but the exterior of the Brotherton Library is of unadorned red brick. The reason for this was that it was to be accessed through the Parkinson Building, and there was no reason for it to have a Portland stone exterior when the library would not be easily visible. However, the delay in the Parkinson's construction, initially because of a shortage of funding, meant that the Brotherton's plain exterior was on view for fourteen years.
The contrast between the exterior and the interior of the Brotherton could not be greater. Through the glass doors leading from the Parkinson Building into the library, a small entrance hall with a short flight of steps leads up to swing doors which open on to a large cylindrical space surmounted by a concrete dome. The diameter of the room, 160 feet (48.8 metres), was deliberately made wider than the 140 feet of the British Museum Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form inside...
, on which it was modelled. Twenty columns of green Swedish marble, each comprising three drums weighing three tons each, support the coffer
Coffer
A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault...
ed dome, and there is a balcony with a decorative iron balustrade and an elaborate art deco electrolier
Electrolier
Electrolier was the name for a fixture, usually pendent from the ceiling, for holding electric lamps. The word is analogous to chandelier, from which it was formed....
suspended from the dome's centre. On the main floor, the bookshelves are mostly located in bays underneath the balcony; the balcony has an ambulatory
Ambulatory
The ambulatory is the covered passage around a cloister. The term is sometimes applied to the procession way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar....
providing access to the various subject-areas and to the Brotherton Collection at the rear.
Beneath the main floor of the library are two further circular floors. In 1993, a three-floor extension at the rear, the West Building, was opened to provide more space for readers, books and library staff, and to unite the Brotherton Collection with other Special Collections that have accumulated over the years.
Miscellanea
- The University of Leeds is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Brotherton Library with a progamme of talks and conducted tours of the building, culminating on 6 October 2011 in a lecture by Melvyn BraggMelvyn BraggMelvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
, the Chancellor of the University, entitled The Book of Books – the radical impact of the King James Bible, 1611–2011.
- The Brotherton's predecessor, the undercroft of the Great HallGreat Hall of the University of LeedsThe Great Hall is a grade II listed Gothic Revival building located at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The building is primarily used for formal occasions such as graduation ceremonies and university students' examinations. Its undercroft was previously utilised to house the...
, now houses the University Archives, which are managed by the Library.
- Works in the University's Art Collection, also managed by the Library, can be seen in the University Gallery, located in the Parkinson BuildingParkinson BuildingThe Parkinson Building is a grade II listed art deco building and campanile located at the University of Leeds in the West Yorkshire region of England...
.