Browsing the shelves of Britain’s oldest public library In August 1655, when Chetham’s Library first opened, newly acquired books were chained to the bookcases to deter thieves. While the chaining […]

In August 1655, when Chetham’s Library first opened, newly acquired books were chained to the bookcases to deter thieves.

While the chaining method didn’t last, the concept of the free public library certainly caught on.

Chetham’s Library has now been in continuous use for over 350 years, and is the oldest of its kind in the English speaking world.

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The books were worth more than the building

Located in Long Millgate, not far from Manchester’s bustling city centre, the beautiful sandstone library building dates back to 1421. Originally built to accommodate the priests of Manchester’s Collegiate Church, it is part of the oldest complete structure in the city.

After the Reformation, the premises was purchased through the will of local merchant Humphrey Chetham in 1653.

A lifetime ambition of Chetham’s was to overcome poverty by curing ignorance. Staying true to his passion, even in death, the money Chetham left in his will for books was actually twice as much as the cost of the building itself – £1000 and £500 respectively.

Despite Humphrey Chetham’s instructions that newly acquired books were chained to the bookcases, this practice was abandoned in the mid 18th-century, and replaced by the gates you see today.

The library soon built up a collection large and diverse enough to meet the needs of the clergy, lawyers and doctors of Manchester and surrounding towns. Books were arranged according to size rather than in any particular order.

The first proper catalogue wasn’t published until 1791, and that was in Latin – though these days visitors are thankfully able to search the catalogue online.

Paradise Lost to Northern Soul

As well as early printed books, the collections at Chetham’s feature a wealth of ephemera, diaries, letters, deeds, prints, paintings and glass lantern slides.

Forty-one medieval manuscripts include the 13th-century Flores Historiarum of Matthew Paris – a chronicle of world and English history – and a 15th century Aulus Gellius bound for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.

The literature collection at the library contains all of the Greek and Latin classics you might expect, including the first printing of Homer (1488) and Plutarch’s Lives (1517), in addition to rare first editions of key works such as Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667).

A photographic tour of Chetham’s Library

The collections here are of international significance, but Chetham’s is also a library specialising in Manchester itself – and they continue to collect books and documents about the city.

When asked when the latest acquisition was made, librarian Michael Powell replied: “Yesterday”.

Highlights include extensive collections from former entertainment mecca Belle Vue (stretching from the mid-1800s through to its final days in the 1970s) as well as one of the world’s foremost gathering of Northern Soul paraphernalia.

A working Manchester time capsule

In addition to modern titles, visitors to Chetham’s might stumble upon the oldest history of Manchester – Richard Hollingworth’s 1656 autograph of Mancuniensis – or possibly the first ever census of Manchester, compiled between 1773 and 1774.

Collections of prints, maps, slides, newspapers, directories and periodicals all help to provide a unique insight into Manchester’s past.

Many well known visitors have studied in the library’s beautiful Reading Room, from Daniel Defoe and Benjamin Franklin to Damon Albarn.

No stranger to famous faces, Chetham’s Library was the meeting place of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, when Marx visited Manchester in the summer of 1845.

The desk by the window in the Reading Room (which you can still sit at today) is where they famously began their work on the Communist Manifesto.

Writing to Marx in 1870, Engels commented:

“During the last few days I have again spent a good deal of time sitting at the four-sided desk in the alcove where we sat together 24 years ago. I am very fond of the place. The stained glass window ensures that the weather is always fine there.”

The weather may not always be fine in Manchester, but you can always take refuge at Chetham’s Library.

It’s a striking building, steeped in history – ever evolving without ever really changing.