The Old Reading Room
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Old Reading Room by Rose and Trev Clough as part of the Geograph project.
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The Old Reading Room
Image: © Rose and Trev Clough Taken: 14 Sep 2013
This was the Lord Street Working Men's Reading Room, built in 1851 to provide larger premises for a popular reading room which had been running in John Street, Botchergate since 1848. At one time there were 300 members, using the lending library and attending classes and discussion groups. The new building was made possible by donations of money and services from middle class benefactors, and rule changes soon followed, including a ban on controversial political and religious material. The working class members felt alienated and stopped coming - by 1863 the reading room was hardly used. Information from J. Rose (see Google Books http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Intellectual_Life_of_the_British_Wor.html?id=3B-qbvQTYyEC&redir_esc=y ) and A. Fraser http://capping.slis.ualberta.ca/cap03/andrew/capping.htm . Today the building is occupied by Border City Windows, the front door is on Lancaster Street with Lord Street to the right.
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Image Location
Latitude
54.887989
Longitude
-2.928609