York Library (York Explore Library and Archive) is situated in Museum Street,

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

, England. It became a Grade II

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 ...

in 1997. York's first

subscription library A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments. Unlike a public library, access is often restricted to members, but access rights ca ...

opened in 1794, but it was only in 1893 that the city's first

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 ...

was opened in

Clifford Street Clifford Street is a street in central London, built in the early 18th century, on land that once formed part of the Burlington Estate. It is named after the Clifford family, Earl of Cumberland, Earls of Cumberland. The daughter and heiress of ...

by the then

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

and Duchess of York, in a building formerly occupied by the Institute of Popular Science and Literature. This was the period when free public libraries were supplanting subscription libraries, and the establishment of York's public library was the city's way of marking

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

. In 1917 the public library was merged with York Subscription Library. The present library building on Museum Street was designed by Walter Brierley and opened in 1927. Since then, there have been a number of extensions to the building, most recently in 2014, when the library became home to the City Archives.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Library buildings completed in 1927 Buildings and structures in York Public libraries in North Yorkshire Museum Street (York) Grade II listed library buildings Grade II listed buildings in York Libraries established in 1794