Sheffield Central Library is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending 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 servic ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. It houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection, as well as Graves Art Gallery, 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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style, it was opened in 1934 by the Duchess of York (later The Queen Mother). Conceived as part of a plan by Patrick Abercrombie 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 was constructed to one side of the library. The building, supported by a steel frame, is faced with Portland stone and has some decorative mouldings by Alfred and William Tory. It is a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

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 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 recognised ...

'' reported that the building's owner, Sheffield City Council, 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 four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pu ...

)

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