The Historic Reading Room, John Rylands Library

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 21 Jan 2015

The centrepiece of the John Rylands Library is its famous Historic Reading Room; one of the finest reading rooms of any library in the world. The room was built 30 feet above street level, where maximum daylight could be obtained and disturbance from the horse-drawn traffic on the cobblestones of Victorian Deansgate was kept to a minimum. This fantastic neo-Gothic space has a cathedral-like feel with small alcoves on each side. It is presided over at either end by John Cassidy’s striking marble statues of John and Enriqueta Rylands with a broad central aisle running between them. Each end of the gallery features a huge stained-glass window created by Charles Eamer Kempe. The southern window depicts giants of secular art and literature, ranging from the ancient world to the 19th century, and including Aristotle, Beethoven, Dante and Michelangelo (see Image]).

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