John Rylands Library, Historic Reading Room
Introduction
The photograph on this page of John Rylands Library, Historic Reading Room by David Dixon as part of the Geograph project.
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John Rylands Library, Historic Reading Room
Image: © David Dixon Taken: 21 Jan 2015
The Library’s centrepiece 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. More than 40 feet above the aisle is the most magnificent of the Library’s vaulted ceilings. Each end of the gallery features a huge stained-glass window created by Charles Eamer Kempe. The northern window features Moses, Isaiah and Christian figures from biblical to early modern times (see Image]).
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Image Location
Latitude
53.480352
Longitude
-2.249038