Manchester Central Library

Manchester Central Library is a circular library south of the Town Hall Extension in Manchester, England. It acts as the headquarters of the Manchester Library & Information Service, which also consists of 22 other community libraries. Designed by E. Vincent Harris, the library was constructed between 1930 and 1934, but because of its traditional neoclassical architecture it is often mistakenly thought to be much older. At its opening one critic wrote "This is the sort of thing which persuades one to believe in the perennial applicability of the Classical canon". The form of the building, a columned portico attached to a rotunda domed structure, is loosely derived from the Pantheon, Rome. The library building is grade II* listed. In...