The £188 million Library of Birmingham on Westside will be ten years old on 3 September.
The actual milestone date falls on a Sunday when the building is closed, but fear not … on Saturday 2 September there will be some Shakespeare celebrations in-house.
And to mark the anniversary, we’ve produced this two-minute video showing the library under construction from 2009 to 2013, and then the phenomenal crowds admiring the Raging Bull outside during the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
There’s also footage shot during a recent day of glorious sunshine befitting the library’s golden exterior – with Centenary Square’s reflective pool working again.
The Library of Birmingham is just yards from the Rep theatre, ICC and Symphony Hall which collectively also overlook Centenary Square.
All this makes the library a must-see highlight of anyone’s visit to the heart of the Westside area off Broad Street – and every year the best part of a million people agree by walking through its doors.
The library won a string of awards after it opened including Design Innovation and Project of the Year in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (West Midlands) awards and ‘Project of the Year (over £50 million) by Construction News. It was shortlisted for both the World Architecture Festival awards in the Culture – Completed Buildings category, and the Stirling Prize for Architecture, where it won the prize for ‘most popular building’ in the shortlist.
During the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which ran from 28 July to 8 August, there were a record 100,000 visitors across the 12-day period. And prior to the pandemic, there were 944,717 visits and 210,166 books borrowed between April 2018 and April 2019, (that’s one book for every 4.4 visits).
The number of books borrowed in the whole post-pandemic year to July 2022 had more than halved, falling from 210,166 books to 101,013. Although that represented a falling borrowing rate of roughly one for every eight visits, total visitor numbers were still high at just shy of 812,000.
During our visit on the super-sunny day of England’s Lionesses beating Australia in the semi-final of the World Cup, the number of tables occupied by young people studying with their laptops open was quite remarkable for out of term mid-August. This highlighted how the library’s spacious reading areas with free wi-fi will always be attractive.
If you plan to visit the library’s seventh floor’s Secret Garden or the ninth floor for the Shakespeare Room, allow extra time as one of more escalators can be out of order at any one time and the individual capacities of the three lifts are limited.
Last year, Birmingham City Council said of the ongoing maintenance issues for the building’s escalators and lifts: “The library’s bespoke design means repairs are more complex.”
One surprising factor about the library is that the two cafes have not reopened since the pandemic. A member of staff told us: “There is a vending machine, otherwise the nearest place for refreshments is either the Rep cafe, Starbucks in the ICC, the Symphony Hall cafe or the cafe at the University of Birmingham’s The Exchange in the former Municipal Bank opposite.”
Should you want a traditional pint of beer, try the Prince of Wales or The Flapper pubs along Cambridge Street (to the rear of the Library), or any of the bars higher up Broad Street or in Brindleyplace.
The Library of Birmingham is in Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2ND. It has a ‘full service’ opening from 11am to 7pm Monday to Tuesday and from 11am to 5pm from Wednesday to Saturday. It is closed on Sundays.
An ‘express service’ is available from 9am-11am and 7pm-9pm Monday to Tuesday and from 9am-11am and 5pm-9pm from Wednesday to Friday. Telephone enquiries can be made 11am to 5pm Monday to Friday on 0121 242 4242.
