The William Brown Library and Museum is a Grade II* listed building situated on the historic William Brown Street in Liverpool, England. The building currently houses part of the World Museum Liverpool and Liverpool Central Library.
William Brown Street in Liverpool, England, is a road that is remarkable for its concentration of public buildings. It is sometimes referred to as the "Cultural Quarter"
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in North West England, with an estimated population of 491,500. Its metropolitan area is the fifth-largest in the UK, with a population of 2.24 million in 2011. The local authority is Liverpool City Council, the most populous local government district in the metropolitan county of Merseyside and the largest in the Liverpool City Region.
Liverpool Central Library is the largest of the 22 libraries in Liverpool, England, situated in the centre of the city.
Contents
The William Brown Library and Museum building was conceived as a replacement for the Derby Museum (containing the Earl of Derby's natural history collection) which then shared two rooms on the city's Duke Street with a library. The land for the building on what was then called Shaw's Brow as well as much of the funding was provided by local MP and merchant Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet of Astrop, in whose honour the street was renamed.
Earl of Derby is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the end of the reign of Henry III and died in 1279. Most of the Ferrers property and the Derby title were then held by the family of Henry III. The title merged in the Crown upon Henry IV's accession to the throne in 1399.
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment; leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a naturalist or natural historian.
Following on from the then-recently completed St. George's Hall across the street, the new building was designed by Thomas Allom in a classical style including Corinthian columns and was modified by the Liverpool Corporation architect John Weightman. The new building opened its doors in 1860 with 400,000 people attending the opening ceremony.
Thomas Allom was an English architect, artist, and topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many buildings in London, including the Church of St Peter's and parts of the elegant Ladbroke Estate in Notting Hill. He also worked with Sir Charles Barry on numerous projects, most notably the Houses of Parliament, and is also known for his numerous topographical works, such as Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, published in 1838, and China Illustrated, published in 1845.
The Corinthian order is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order. The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders. This architectural style is characterized by slender fluted columns and elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. There are many variations.
With Liverpool being one of the country's key ports, much of the city was badly damaged by German bombing during the Second World War and William Brown Library and Museum were no exception. Hit by firebombs during the blitz in 1941, the building was ravaged by fire and much of the building had to be rebuilt. Key parts of the museum's collection had been previously moved to less vulnerable locations and damage to those avoided.
The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the English city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe.
Plans have now been brought forward to redevelop the library, replacing the post–World War II additions with state-of-the-art facilities. [1]
