Sheffield Central Library is a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, England. It houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection, as well as

Graves Art Gallery Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of British and European ar ...

, on the third floor, and a theatre in the basement. Services available from the building include the Sheffield Information Service and a wide range of library sections, such as arts, sports, business, technology and local studies. Work on the building began in 1929, to a design by W. G. Davies. Built in a broadly

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style, it was opened in 1934 by the

Duchess of York Duchess of York is the principal Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom, courtesy title held by the wife of the duke of York. Three of the eleven dukes of York either did not marry or had already assumed the throne prior to marriage, whilst two of ...

(later The Queen Mother). Conceived as part of a plan by

Patrick Abercrombie Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie (; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English regional and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior to the Second World ...

to create a civic square, it was the only element of that proposal ever built and so it faces onto a narrow street. In 1991,

Tudor Square Tudor Square is a city square in the city of Sheffield, England. The square is home to the largest concentration of theatres in the UK outside London and has thus become known as Sheffield's ‘Theatre Land’. The Square lies at the heart of th ...

was constructed to one side of the library. The building, supported by a steel frame, is faced with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

and has some decorative mouldings by Alfred and William Tory. It is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

at Grade II status. The art gallery contained within was founded around a bequest from J. G. Graves and hosts a range of temporary and permanent exhibitions. In January 2017, ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

'' reported that the building's owner,

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...

, planned to sell it due to expensive repairs being required following years of neglect. The potential buyer was the Sichuan Guodong Construction Group, a Chinese developer, which proposed to convert the library into a hotel. The company discovered its costs for the intended work would be higher than anticipated and the project was abandoned. The latest council commissioned report on proposals for the building indicate that the preferred option is for the library service to be moved to a new site with Castlegate or the former John Lewis building in Barkers Pool mentioned as possibilities. Under these plans, the current library building itself would be retained for just the Graves Gallery.

References

*Ruth Harman and John Minnis, ''Sheffield'' (

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

)

External links

City council's description of facilities at the library

Building information from made-in-sheffield
{{Authority control Public libraries in South Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Library buildings completed in 1934 Library, Central Library, Central Art Deco architecture in England 1934 establishments in England