In June of this year there opens the new City Library of Newcastle. This is the third City Library in living memory. Any literate Novocastrian over the age of about 55 can remember the Victorian library which stood on the same site. Then came Basil Spence's version from the late 1960s. When that building had outlived its usefulness (said who?), a new one was designed by Ryder and built by Kajima . Thus was lost the opportunity to commission a noteworthy building demonstrating civic pride. It would surely have been possible to find an architectural firm which could have made the statement without making it overblown or turning the project into an "ideas store" .
The aesthetic nullity of the new library is unbelievable. It contrasts unfavourably with the more humble suburban library at Jesmond which was opened in 1963. This one has a circular book/reading room and was designed by Harry Faulkner Brown and Partners.It fits comfortably into a small corner site and is reasonably well lit. The only disadvantage is that (if I remember rightly) it does not have a public lavatory).
Libraries are in the news at the moment,there are the planned closures of several of them in the Wirral and now-according to "The Guardian" there is the suggestion that piped music should be supplied. The mind boggles but boggle it must. One recent proposal was that booksellers should choose what goes onto library shelves. Judging from the state of my own local branch that may already be happening.
