Laying the foundation stone of Plymouth Central Library 1907

On Wednesday 16 October 1907 the two foundation stones for Plymouth’s new Free Public Library and the Museum and Art Gallery were laid on a site on Tavistock Road (now North Hill).

Funding the new library

It had long been recognised, certainly by the Borough Librarian WHK Wright, that Plymouth needed a new library; the library had since 1876 been housed in the old Guildhall building on Whimple Street, but was too small for Edwardian Plymouth’s population of 100,000. The borough also needed a museum and art gallery: artefacts were then displayed in Beaumont House, which again was too small for requirements.

The cost of two premises was estimated at about £30,000, which the council attempted to raise from the rates, government loans and public donations. By 1906, with capital proving impossible to raise, introductions were sought with the steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who at the time was ploughing part of his fortune into free public education on both sides of the Atlantic, which included provision for public libraries. Carnegie agreed to donate £15,000 for a new library, leaving the council to find the funds for the museum and art gallery, which it was able to do.

Local architects were invited to submit designs for the new building, and those of Thornely and Rooke of the Crescent in Plymouth were judged as most suitable. Pethick Bros Ltd. was chosen to build the complex, having quoted £11,460 for the library and £11,401 for the museum. Ultimately, the library cost £12,308 to build with a further £3,326 spent on fixtures and fittings.

Thornely and Rooke’s final plans and elevations dated 26 June 1907 were recommended for approval by the Special Committee to the Council, whose chairman was James Paton, Borough Engineer and Surveyor.

Lunch and the stone-laying ceremony

The stone-laying ceremony on 16 October was preceded by a luncheon at the Corn Exchange, "one of the most highly-successful functions of the civic year", hosted by Alderman T Brook, chairman of the council’s Museum and Art Gallery Committee. The 120-plus men-only guest list included Mayor JF Winnicott and members of the council, principal corporate officers, “and a number of gentlemen interested in art and literature” (as reported in the Western Daily Mercury 17 October 1907 pp.5/6)

The first to speak was Sir Joseph Arthur Bellamy, prominent Plymouth businessman, local politician and former mayor, who proposed "success to the Free Library", noting its important role in the community and as a provider of education resources. Sir Joseph remarked on the library’s non-fiction collection: "A free library should only contain books and papers that a broad-minded man, a family man, in his household would not blush to see his son or daughter reading". Mayor Winnicott, in his reply, said that "as far as [was] able they excluded all loose or questionable volumes from the list".

Following lunch, the guests gathered outside the Council Chamber adjacent to St Andrew’s Church and began a procession to Tavistock Road: the Western Daily Mercury reported that "a large assemblage of the public witnessed the start". At the head of the procession marched a detachment of police led by Chief Constable Sowerby. In order followed the mace bearers; Mayor Winnicott and Deputy Mayor Thomas Wills; magistrates; councillors; corporate officers; the Chamber of Commerce and the Mercantile Association.

At the site of the new library HL Thornely of Thornely and Rooke presented Mayor Winnicott with a commemorative silver trowel inscribed "Presented to JF Winnicott, Esq., Mayor, on the occasion of the laying the foundation stone of the Free Public Library, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, Esq., LL.D." The Mayor invited the Borough Librarian WHK Wright to place in the ground a lead casket containing a report of the library’s first year in 1876 and a report of the current year, together with various newspapers of that date and coins. Mayor Winnicott then laid the foundation stone, using the commemorative trowel, upon the buried casket. The procession then moved up Tavistock Road to the site of the Museum and Art Gallery, where Alderman Brook laid the foundation stone.

Messers Pethick Brothers Ltd. began work on the site on 9 December 1907.

[Back to top]