Selly Oak Library is a Carnegie library in

Selly Oak Selly Oak is an industrial and residential area in south-west Birmingham, England. The area gives its name to Selly Oak ward and includes the neighbourhoods of: Bournbrook, Selly Park, and Ten Acres. The adjoining wards of Edgbaston and Harbor ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. It is Grade II listed. This building closed to the public in April 2017. Library provision was moved to Touchbase Pears on Bristol Road.

History

It was announced in June 1902 that

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

had promised to contribute £3,000 towards a free library and reading-room in Selly Oak, following an appeal from Mr E. A. Oliveri. Selly Oak Library was erected to designs by the architect John P Osborne. The contractor was George Webb, and the foundation stone was laid on 1 August 1905. The foundation stone reveals that the building was funded by Andrew Carnegie and that the site was given by local business man Thomas Gibbins, who owned the

Birmingham Battery and Metal Company The Birmingham Battery and Metal Company was founded in 1836 with a factory in Digbeth, Birmingham. The company did not make batteries, but the use of the word battery in the name refers to a method of metal production and forming (which had la ...

. The library cost £3,000 (equivalent to £ in ), and was officially opened by Thomas Gibbins on 23 June 1906. The library reading room was to the south-west of the entrance with an issue desk, stacks and reading slopes for newspapers. Some of the original glazed screens survive in situ.

References

{{Authority control Library buildings completed in 1905 Buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county) Grade II listed buildings in Birmingham Carnegie libraries in England Libraries in Birmingham, West Midlands Selly Oak 1905 establishments in England