13 June 2006
Bristol central library, just off College Green, celebrates its centenary this year, and was recently voted the city's best 20th century building. A new book by art librarian Anthony Beeson reveals its fascinating story.
Bristol, you'll be surprised to hear for such a pointedly mercantile city, had one of the earliest public libraries in the country, established in the Guild of Calendars premises attached to Corn Street's All Saints Church in 1464. Although open to the public for four hours each day, its stock of 800 chained volumes was mostly made up of religious works and can't, in all honesty, have held much interest for most of the populace. It's believed that the book collection was destroyed by a fire (or possibly just neglect) but when the Calendar's Guild was dissolved under the orders of Henry VIII in 1548, a room was still described as a library.
What happened to its books we just don't know. Our story then moves on to the early 17th century when Bristol merchant Robert Redwood gave his lodge in King Street for conversion into a library. Some of the donated books 'for the free use of the merchants and shopkeepers of the city' are still held in the reference library today. From its official opening in 1615 - a few years after the towns of Norwich and Ipswich had established their own 'public' libraries - the King Street premises flourished and were even enlarged. Thefts were a problem and we are informed that 186 book chains had to be bought from a local ironmonger as a deterrent.
But even in those days it seems, there were problems with funding, and the building became run down. Indeed, the Corporation even considered stopping the librarian's salary and letting the premises out. Something obviously had to be done about the situation and after long deliberation in 1738 it was decided to demolish the old place and build a new library. Well-respected local architect James Paty, a man of many talents who was also a designer, mason and sculptor, was chosen for the task. He did a good job with a grand building costing some £1,301 but his facade is now - after 1950s 'restoration' - nothing but a shadow of its former self. But this library, despite good intentions, only developed slowly and other parts of the building were let out for other, non-library, uses.
The institution obviously needed money other than that given unwillingly by Bristol Corporation and in 1772 a group of literary gentlemen decided to set up a Subscription Library. Having made the suggestion that its home could be in the King Street building the Corporation agreed - even providing financial assistance to help repair the building. This library was much appreciated by the literati of the period who included Cornishman Humphrey Davy, then carrying out pioneering scientific work at Hotwells, and Robert Southey, the Bristol-born poet, writer and historian. Another frequent user was the poet Coleridge, who was prepared to walk in all the way from Clevedon (and back) to get his books.
Despite its many benefits, this library excluded those unable to pay the £4 subscription charge. Although much of the original book stock was still in existence, the idea of a ' free' library seems to have died. The society who ran the establishment seem to have been a snooty lot. Even if you could afford the subscription you couldn't take out books if you were connected with 'places of entertainment', inns or lodging houses. And they later insisted that the books belonging to the Corporation - which they had always treated with contempt - be removed to make way for more of those belonging to the society. But you couldn't deny that the fee-paying library was a success.
New books were bought and a new wing added in 1785, consisting of a large ground-floor room and a similar one above. By 1848, many citizens had had enough. Forty well-respected Bristolians asked what right the society had to stop the public from obtaining free access to the books which, by right, belonged to them. Although during 80 years the society had built up a good stock of books, it had been with £14,000 of public money and with little benefit to most citizens. In a surprise move, encouraged by the passing of the 1850 Public Libraries Act, the Corporation gave the society notice to quit its King Street premises. And so, in 1856 after they had moved out, the old library reopened as a place where books could once again be freely consulted and borrowed. In 1867, the society, together with its books, joined forces with the Bristol Philosophical Society to occupy the Venetian Gothic building in Queen's Road, now home to Brown's restaurant.
After the city had adopted the Public Libraries Act in 1877, they were allowed to charge ratepayers for the service. But Victorian times, with the emerging of a literate middle and working class, put a great pressure on the little library. It soon became obvious that it had become inadequate but plans to build a new, more central one foundered, as ever, because of a lack of funds. Then a saviour arrived in the form of the will of Vincent Stuckey Lean, a wealthy bachelor lawyer interested in the arts who had inherited a fortune from his illustrious banking family. With his bequest of £ 45,000, the Corporation at last set out to build a fine new library. The site chosen was the Old Deanery and Canons' house situated next to the old medieval Abbey gateway.
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