Leeds Central Library

Leeds Central Library
Leeds Central Library seen from Great George Street and Calverley Street
General information
Town or city	Leeds
Country	England
Construction started	1878
Completed	1884
Client	Leeds City Council

Leeds Central Library is a public library in Leeds, located on the Headrow in the city centre. It houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection, as well as hosting an art gallery in the adjoining building.

Services available from the building include:

The Central Library is a Grade II* listed building and was constructed between 1878 and 1884. The building was opened on 17 April 1884 by the Mayor, Alderman Edwin Woodhouse as the Leeds Municipal Offices. It was intended that various scattered borough departments would be accommodated in the building so that the administration of Leeds would be concentrated in the Municipal Offices and the Town Hall. A design competition was held to choose a design for the building. There were 26 entries and the winning architect was a Leeds man of Scottish origin - George Corson. He said

I determined that the new buildings adjacent to the Town Hall would be similar in style to the Town Hall but not identical in treatment.

Corson's plans included dividing the buildings into a 'business' side, which fronted on Calverley Street, and the 'popular' side which led onto Centenary Street (now the Headrow). The 'popular' side was occupied by the Free Public Library and took up less than a third of the whole building. This consisted of a (currently the Tiled Hall cafe) on the ground floor, a lending library on the 1st floor and Reference Library on the 2nd floor. The 'business' side was represented on the ground floor by the large pay office (currently the Central Lending Library) where local people came to settle their gas, water and rates bills. The borough engineer and the sanitary departments were on the first and second floors respectively. The total cost of the building was estimated in the region of £120,000 (approximately £6m today). On 3 October 1888 the Mayor, Alderman Scarr opened the new Art Gallery extension, designed by W.H. Thorp. The Tiled Hall, formerly the Reading Room, was then converted to a sculpture gallery and the Reading Room was transferred to the Art Gallery and renamed the News Room. The Commercial and Technical Library was established in the News Room in 1918, but in cramped conditions. In 1955 it moved into the Tiled Hall. The Commercial and Technical Library was then able to expand and have both a lending and a reference collection.