The John Rylands Library is a late-Victorian neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to the public in 1900, was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, John Rylands. It became part of the university in 1972, and now houses the majority of the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library, the third largest academic library in the United Kingdom.Imagine2030; University of Manchester
Special collections built up by both libraries were progressively concentrated in the Deansgate building. The special collections, believed to be among the largest in the United Kingdom, include medieval illuminated manuscripts and examples of early European printing, including a Gutenberg Bible and a Mainz Psalter, the second largest collection of printing by William Caxton, and the most extensive collection of the editions of the Aldine Press of Venice. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52 has a claim to be the earliest extant New Testament text. The library holds personal papers and letters of notable figures, among them the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell and the scientist John Dalton.
The architectural style is primarily neo-Gothic with elements of the Arts and Crafts movement in the ornate and imposing gatehouse, facing Deansgate, which dominates the streetscape. The library, granted Grade I listed status in 1994, is maintained by the University of Manchester and open for library readers and visitors.
The library is one of the museum, library and archive collections of national and international importance under the Designation Scheme for England. , 152 collections are officially designated.
History Enriqueta Rylands purchased a site on Deansgate for her memorial library in 1889 and commissioned a design from architect Basil Champneys.Farnie, D. A. (1989) "Enriqueta Augustina Rylands" in: Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, LXXI, 2 (summer 1989); pp. 3–38 Mrs Rylands commissioned the Manchester academic Alice Cooke to index the vast library of the 2nd Earl Spencer which she had purchased and another collection of autographs.Fernanda Helen Perrone, ‘Cooke, Alice Margaret (1867–1940)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 26 Dec 2015 Mrs Rylands intended the library to be principally theological, and the building, which is a fine example of Victorian Gothic, has the appearance of a church, although the concept was of an Oxford college library on a larger scale.Farnie (1989) Champneys presented plans to Mrs Rylands within a week of gaining the commission. Thereafter frequent disagreements arose and Mrs Rylands selected decorative elements, window glass and statues against his wishes.
Champneys was given the honour of speaking about the library at a general meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was awarded a Royal Gold Medal in 1912. The library was granted listed building status on 25 January 1952, which was upgraded to Grade I on 6 June 1994.
The core of the library's collection was formed around 40,000 books, including many rarities, assembled by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, which Mrs Rylands purchased from Lord Spencer in 1892 for £210,000.Laubier, G. de, & Bosser, J. (2003). The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. She had begun acquiring books in 1889 and continued to do so throughout her lifetime. Another notable purchase made by Mrs Rylands was that of over 6,000 manuscripts from the Bibliotheca Lindesiana of James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford at Haigh Hall in 1901. Quickly and without discussion, Mrs Rylands took them off his hands for £155,000, having made her decision based upon cursory description, as Lord Crawford had never produced a definitive description.
After its inauguration on 6 October 1899 (the wedding anniversary of John Rylands and Enriqueta Tennant), the library opened to readers and visitors on 1 January 1900. At the time of Enriqueta's death in 1908, the library held more than 50,000 volumes of exceptional quality. In the following years, thanks to bequests, the library acquired 80,000 works and 3,000 manuscripts, which required the construction of an annex behind the main building.Laubier, G. de., & Bosser, J. (2003). The most beautiful libraries in the world. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
The John Rylands Library and the Manchester University Library merged in July 1972 and was named the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Special collections built up by both libraries were progressively concentrated in the Deansgate building.
The building has been extended four times, the first time to designs by Champneys in 1920 after the project was delayed by the First World War. The Lady Wolfson Building opened in 1962 on the west sideIsaac Wolfson laid the building's foundation stone on 25 July 1957 and a third extension, south of the first was built in 1969. In January 2003, an appeal to renovate the building was launched. Funds were generated from grants from the University of Manchester and Heritage Lottery Fund and donations from members of the public and companies in Manchester. The project, "Unlocking the Rylands", demolished the third extension, refurbished parts of the old building and erected a pitched roof over its reinforced concrete roof. Champneys designed a pitched roof but Mrs Rylands was advised that an internal stone vault would reduce the fire risk and it was not built. The £17 million project was completed by summer 2007 and the library reopened on 20 September 2007.
A £7.6 million plan to upgrade the library was issued in February 2024 under which Manchester City Council allowed a series of "sensitive adaptations" to update The John Rylands Library. The project 'John Rylands Next Chapter' was a part of its Imagine2030 vision.
Location
By the nineteenth century Manchester was a prosperous industrial town and the demands of cotton manufacturing stimulated the growth of engineering and chemical industries. The town became 'abominably filthy' and was 'often covered, especially during the winter, with dense fogs ... there is at all times a copious descent of soots and other impurities'. This, and the overcrowded site, created many design problems for the architect. During the century most textile manufacture moved to newer mills in the surrounding towns while Manchester remained the centre of trading in cotton goods both for the home and foreign markets but pollution from burning coal and gas remained a considerable nuisance.
The site chosen by Mrs Rylands was in a central and fashionable part of the city, but was awkward in shape and orientation and surrounded by tall warehouses, derelict cottages and narrow streets. The position was criticised for its lack of surrounding space and the fact that the valuable manuscript collections were to be housed in "that dirty, uncomfortable city ... [with] not enough light to read by, and the books they already have are wretchedly kept" (written in 1901 about the Crawford MSS.) Mrs Rylands negotiated Deeds of Agreement with her neighbours to fix the heights of future adjacent buildings. The permissible height of the building was fixed at just over 34 feet, but it was suggested that it could be taller at the centre if there was an open area around the edges, at the height of buildings that had been demolished to make way for the construction. Champneys incorporated this suggestion into his design, setting the two towers of the façade twelve feet back from the boundary and keeping the entrance block low, to allow light into the library. He designed the building in a series of tiered steps with an almost flat roof to give a 'liberal concession' to the neighbours' 'right to light'.
Architecture
Exterior The library was built on a rectangular plan and subsequent extensions are to the rear. It was designed to resemble a church in a decorated neo-Gothic style with Arts and Crafts details. It is constructed of Cumbrian sandstone, the interior a delicately shaded 'Shawk' stone (from Dalston, varying in colour between sand and a range of pinks) and the exterior, dark red Barbary stone from Penrith. built around an internal steel framed structure and brick arched flooring. The red 'Barbary plain' sandstone, which Champneys believed 'had every chance of proving durable' for the exterior, was an unusual choice in late Victorian Manchester. It proved relatively successful, as an inspection by Champneys in 1900 revealed little softening by the 'effects of an atmosphere somewhat charged with chemicals' although, by 1909 some repairs were needed.
The library has a crypt above which the building has two unequal storeys giving the impression of three. The ornate Deansgate façade has an embattled parapet with open-work arcading under which is a central three-bay entrance resembling a monastery gatehouse. Its two-centred arched portal has doorways separated by a trumeau and tall windows on either side. Above the doors are a pair of small canted oriel windows. Surfaces are decorated with lacy blind tracery and finely detailed carving. The carving includes the "J. R." monogram, the arms of Rylands, the arms of St Helens (Rylands' native town), and those of five English, two Scottish and two Irish universities and of Owens College. On either side of the entrance portal are square two-storey two-bay wings with plain walls with a string course containing grotesques and large octagonal lanterns. Behind the entrance portal flanked by square towers is the three-light east window of the reading hall. It has reticulated tracery and shafts in a similar style to the parapet. In front of the library are Art Nouveau bronze railings with central double gates and lamp standards.
Interior
The main reading room on the first floor, 30 feet above the ground and 12 feet from all four boundaries, was noted for the pleasant contrast between the 'sullen roar' of Manchester and the 'internal cloister quietude of Rylands'. It was lit by oriel windows in the reading alcoves supplemented by high clerestory windows along both sides. Embellishments in the reading room include two large stained-glass windows with portraits of religious and secular figures, designed by C. E. Kempe; a series of statues in the reading room by Robert Bridgeman and Sons of Lichfield;"A series of portrait statues, designed by Mr. Robert Bridgeman, of Lichfield"--Guppy, H. (1924) The John Rylands Library, Manchester: 1899-1924. Manchester: University Press; p. 122 and bronze work in the art nouveau style by Singer of Frome. The portraits in sculpture (20) and stained glass (40) represent a selection of personages from the intellectual and artistic history of mankind. The western window contains "Theology" from Moses to Schleiermacher; the eastern "Literature and Art" (including philosophy). The portrait statues of John and Enriqueta Rylands in white marble, in the reading room, were sculpted by John Cassidy who also executed the allegorical group of 'Theology, Science and Art' in the vestibule.John Rylands and the allegorical group were completed for the inauguration, 6 October 1899; Enriqueta's statue was completed in December 1907 and portrays her at the age of her marriage in 1875.
Aside from the main library and reading room with gallery above, the design incorporated Bible and map rooms on the first floor, and conference (lecture) and committee rooms on the ground floor, part of which was intended to be a lending library but never operated as such. A caretaker's house was incorporated in the building until it was demolished for the extension of 1969. The timber used for the woodwork in the principal rooms was Dantzig oak.Guppy, H. (1924) The John Rylands Library, Manchester: 1899-1924. Manchester: University Press; p. 125
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