Northfield Library

Northfield Library is a Carnegie library in Northfield, Birmingham, England[1] which in 1914 became the first open-access lending library in Birmingham.

Northfield Library

History

Northfield Library was opened in 1906. The land was provided by the Cadbury family and the building constructed with funds of £750 (equivalent to £81,266 in 2019)[2] donated by Andrew Carnegie. The foundation stone was laid by Alderman T. R. Bayliss.

On 12 February 1914 the library burnt to the ground. Suspicion fell on local suffragettes.[3]

It was rebuilt in the same year by the Free Libraries Committee and became the first open-access lending library in Birmingham[4] The façade remains the same; however, in 1984, the library building was doubled in size and a project was undertaken to remove asbestos at the same time.[5]

References
  1. The and Municipal and County Engineer, Volume 27, p.125
  2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  3. Notes on the history of the Birmingham public libraries: 1861-1961, Birmingham Public Libraries 1962
  4. Books, Buildings and Social Engineering: Early Public Libraries in Britain from Past to Present. Alistair Black, Simon Pepper, Kaye Bagshaw, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 23 Jun 2009
  5. The Library Association record. The Library Association., 1984

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