Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library

Coordinates: 53°24′36″N 2°58′48″W / 53.410°N 2.980°W

Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library
Picton Reading Room, William Brown Street
General information
Town or city	Liverpool
Country	England
Construction started	1875
Completed	1906
Design and construction
Architect	Cornelius Sherlock (Picton Reading Room) Thomas Shelmerdine (Hornby Library)

The Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library are two grade II* listed buildings on William Brown Street, Liverpool, England, which now form part of the Liverpool Central Library.

The chairman of the William Brown Library and Museum, Sir James Picton, laid the foundation stone of the Picton Reading Room in 1875. It was designed by Cornelius Sherlock, and modelled after the British Museum Reading Room, and was the first electrically lit library in the UK. It was completed in 1879. The front is semicircular with Corinthian columns, and the shape was chosen by the architect to cover the change in the axis of the row of buildings at this point. The Hornby Reading Room (named after Hugh Frederick Hornby) by Thomas Shelmerdine was added in 1906. It stands behind the older building and the interior is decorated in the Edwardian Imperial style.^[1]

Gallery

Hornby Library

• 
  Library interior
• 
  Bust of Hugh Frederick Hornby
• 
  Library interior

Picton Library

• 
  Bust of Sir James Picton
• 
  Doors to Hornby Library
• 
  Library interior

See also

• Architecture of Liverpool

References

1. Pevsner, N. (1969) Lancashire; 1: the industrial and commercial south. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books; p. 159

External links

• The Picton Library
• William Brown Library and Museum
• Images of England:Picton Reading Room and Hornby Library