Weston Library

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Weston Library
Weston Library Exterior by John Cairns 20.3.15-27.jpg
View of the library building.
Country United Kingdom
Type Academic library
Established2015 (2015)
Location Broad Street, Oxford
Collection
Items collected Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, maps, prints, drawings and manuscripts
Access and use
Access requirementsBy reader card for the library itself. The Blackwell Hall, two exhibition rooms, a gift shop, and cafe are open to the public.
MembersStudents and fellows of University of Oxford
Website bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston
Map
Weston Library
Oxford map small.svg
Blue pog.svg
Weston Library
Location of the Weston Library within central Oxford

The Weston Library is part of the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, reopened within the former New Bodleian Library building on the corner of Broad Street and Parks Road in central Oxford, England.

Contents

History

The New Bodleian Library in November 2011 while closed during major refurbishment to create the Weston Library New Bodleian Library November 2011.JPG
The New Bodleian Library in November 2011 while closed during major refurbishment to create the Weston Library

From 1937 to 1940, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott worked on the New Bodleian Library, in Broad Street, Oxford. It is not generally considered his finest work. Needing to provide storage for millions of books without building higher than the surrounding structures, Scott devised a construction going deep into the earth, behind two elevations no higher than those around them. [1] His biographer A. S. G. Butler commented, "In an attempt to be polite to these – which vary from late Gothic to Victorian Tudor – Scott produced a not very impressive neo-Jacobean design". [1] A later biographer, Gavin Stamp, praises the considerable technical achievement of keeping the building low in scale by building underground, but agrees that aesthetically the building is not among Scott's most successful designs. [2] Nikolaus Pevsner dismisses it as "neither one thing nor the other". [3]

The building was constructed of Bladon stone with Clipsham dressings and was opened by King George VI. [4] The Rockefeller Foundation donated 60% of the £1 million cost for the new library building. It included administrative and reading rooms, together with an 11-storey bookstack, three of which are underground. This was connected with the original Bodleian Library underground by a conveyor belt system for books. It is still possible to walk underground between the Radcliffe Camera and the new library building.

In the early 21st century, the building was rebuilt internally to the design of WilkinsonEyre behind its original façade to provide improved storage facilities for rare and fragile material, as well as better facilities for readers and visitors. [5] It reopened to readers as the Weston Library on 21 March 2015. [6] Richard Ovenden (Bodley's Librarian) awarded the Bodley Medal to Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir David Attenborough as part of the official opening ceremony.

The transformed library has been generally well-received, being described as a "hey presto moment for the city" by The Independent newspaper. [7]

In July 2016, the building was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodleian Library</span> Main research library of the University of Oxford

The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gilbert Scott</span> 19th-century English architect

Sir George Gilbert Scott, known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started his career as a leading designer of workhouses. Over 800 buildings were designed or altered by him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giles Gilbert Scott</span> English architect (1880–1960)

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and designing the iconic red telephone box. Scott came from a family of architects. He was noted for his blending of Gothic tradition with modernism, making what might otherwise have been functionally designed buildings into popular landmarks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolaus Pevsner</span> German-born British historian (1902–1983)

Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–74).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Frederick Bodley</span>

George Frederick Bodley was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watts & Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gilbert Scott Jr.</span> Architect from England (1839–1897)

George Gilbert Scott Jr. was an English architect working in late Gothic and Queen Anne revival styles.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Ovenden</span> British librarian and author (born 1964)

Richard Ovenden is a British librarian and author. He currently serves as Bodley's Librarian in the University of Oxford, having been appointed in 2014. Ovenden also serves as the Director of the Bodleian Library's Centre for the Study of the Book and holds a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College. Ovenden is a trustee of the Chawton House Library and vice-chair of the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. In 2009, he was elected chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition, replacing Dame Lynne Brindley in a post he held until 2013. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2015. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, having been elected in 2008.

Thomas Garner (1839–1906) was one of the leading English Gothic revival architects of the Victorian era. He is known for his almost 30-year partnership with architect George Frederick Bodley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad Street, Oxford</span> Street in central Oxford, England

Broad Street is a wide street in central Oxford, England, just north of the former city wall. The street is known for its bookshops, including the original Blackwell's bookshop at number 50, located here due to the University of Oxford. Among residents, the street is traditionally known as The Broad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parks Road</span> Road in Oxford, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Institute</span>

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Gavin Mark Stamp was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Tapper</span> English architect

Sir Walter John Tapper was an English architect known for his work in the Gothic Revival style and a number of church buildings. He worked with some leading ecclesiastical architects of his day and was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Tapper was appointed Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey and acted as consulting architect to York Minster and Manchester Cathedral. On his death in 1935 his son Michael Tapper completed some of his works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodley Medal</span>

The Bodley Medal is awarded by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University to individuals who have made "outstanding contributions ... to the worlds of communications and literature" and who have helped the library achieve "the vision of its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley, to be a library not just to Oxford University but also to the world".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodley's Librarian</span> Head of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England

The head of the Bodleian Library, the main library at the University of Oxford, is known as Bodley's Librarian: Sir Thomas Bodley, as founder, gave his name to both the institution and the position. Although there had been a university library at Oxford since about 1320, it had declined by the end of the 16th century. It was "denuded" of its books in 1550 in the time of King Edward VI when "superstitious books and images" that did not comply with the prevailing Anglican view were removed. Poor management and inadequate financial resources have also been blamed for the state of the library. In the words of one history of the university, "as a public institution, the Library had ceased to function." Bodley volunteered in 1598 to restore it; the university accepted the offer, and work began soon afterwards. The first librarian, Thomas James, was selected by Bodley in 1599. The Bodleian opened in 1602, and the university confirmed James in his post. Bodley wanted the librarian to be "some one that is noted and known for a diligent student, and in all his conversation to be trusty, active, and discrete, a graduate also and a linguist, not encumbered with marriage, nor with a benefice of Cure". James, however, was able to persuade Bodley to let him marry and become Rector of St Aldate's Church, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bodleian Libraries</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester House, Paddington</span>

Chester House on Clarendon Place in Paddington, London is a detached house that was designed by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott as his personal residence. Gilbert Scott lived in the house from its completion in 1926 until his death in 1960. It has been Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England since April 1975. The Historic England heritage listing for Chester House notes the "Restrained carefully proportioned stripped Renaissance design". The house was the recipient of the annual medal for London street architecture of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1928.

References

  1. 1 2 Butler, A. S. G. Scott, Sir Giles Gilbert. Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press . Retrieved 22 June 2012.(subscription required)
  2. Stamp, Gavin. Scott, Sir Giles Gilbert (1880–1960). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 June 2012.(subscription required)
  3. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Jennifer Sherwood (1974). Buildings of England Volume 45: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 253. ISBN   0140710450.
  4. Hibbert, Christopher, ed. (1988). "New Bodleian Library". The Encyclopaedia of Oxford . Macmillan. p. 269. ISBN   0-333-39917-X.
  5. Oxford University Library Services: “Buildings Update”, accessed 10 February 2007. See also New Bodleian, accessed 2009-12-28.
  6. "Weston Library opens to academics after £80m revamp". BBC News . UK: BBC. 29 September 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  7. Merrick, Jay (15 March 2015). "Oxford's New Bodleian Library has had a radical modernist makeover". The Independent . UK. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  8. "Damien Hirst gallery and underground house among Riba Stirling Prize nominees". BBC News. 14 July 2016.

Coordinates: 51°45′18″N1°15′18″W / 51.755°N 1.255°W / 51.755; -1.255