Manchester Central Library on St Peters Square is a great piece of architecture, and contains many thousands of books, as well as a theatre in the basement. From Aviation to Zoology, the Central Library has everything. It’s one of the biggest municipal libraries in the UK.
For those interested in the the history and development of Manchester, the place to go is the Archives and Local Studies Unit, situated on the first floor. Please note it’s not called the Manchester Local History Library, as you might expect.
Resources include books, maps, newspaper cuttings, old maps, all kinds of other historical artifacts and most importantly images, thousands of them.
They can be accessed via computer terminals inside the ARLS. There’s a basic search facility, and the quality of the images, mostly black and white, is generally good. You can order printouts of the photos for a small charge.
But you don’t have to physically go to the Central Library to see the photos. A large section of the Local Image Collection is available online, though at smaller size than viewable on the computer terminals in the library.
Just go to images.manchester.gov.uk and you can search the entire collection. The web address of the Archives and Local Studies Unit is www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/arls.
I frequently receive requests for old images of Manchester but my Manchester photo collection only starts around 1996, so I always refer people to the Archives and Local Studies Unit. The staff there are dedicated and knowledgeable, and can help you out whatever you’re looking for.
The collection covers mainly the City of Manchester. For Salford, go to the Salford Local History Library. Other boroughs in the Manchester area also maintain image collections. More info via their websites.
Another source of local images is the Francis Frith Collection, which covers the UK and Republic of Ireland. Here’s a view of Manchester Central Library from 1965.
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.
Manchester Central Library is one of my favourite places in Manchester and has survived more or less intact despite threats of downgrading or even closure. I revised for my A Levels there, researched books and articles and gathered material for websites. Now 72 years old, let’s hope it’s still there for its hundredth birthday in 2034.