The Manchester Free Library opened on 5 September 1852 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. It was the first public library in England to be set up under the provisions of the

Public Libraries Act 1850 The Public Libraries Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c.65) was an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament which first gave local boroughs the power to establish free public libraries. The Act was the first legislative step in the creation of an enduring natio ...

, which allowed local authorities to impose a local tax of one

penny A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is t ...

to pay for the service. The terms of the act required that a poll of ratepayers had to be held before the local authority was allowed to spend money on public libraries, and at least two-thirds had to vote in favour. In Manchester's case only 40 of the more than 4000 eligible voters opposed. The project was the initiative of John Potter, first Mayor of Manchester, and fellow members of the

Portico Library The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is recor ...

, who started a fund to raise money for the purchase of books and a suitable building to house them. The founding committee included the Bishop of Manchester and the Rev. Thomas Rothwell Bently, the rector of St. Matthew's Church, Campfield. The library was housed in the House of Science in Campfield, close to the present-day site of the Museum of Science and Industry's Air and Space Hall. On its opening it had a stock of 18,028 books, purchased at a cost of £4156 (). So busy was it during its first week that a police officer was assigned to control the crowd around the borrowing desk. Edward Edwards was the first librarian. The Campfield library was replaced in 1882 by a new building at the corner of Deansgate and Liverpool Road, which is now home to the Spanish Instituto Cervantes.

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Bibliography

* * * {{Use dmy dates, date=July 2019 Public libraries in Greater Manchester 1852 establishments in England
Hoyle, Alan (2020), "The Manchester Free Library Building, Home to the Spanish Instituto Cervantes"