Editing Birmingham Central Library (section)

==Earlier libraries==
[[File:Birmingham Central Library fire jan1879.jpg|thumb|left|Central Library after the 1879 fire]]
[[File:Birmingham Central Library c1890.jpg|thumb|left|[[John Henry Chamberlain|J. H. Chamberlain's]] rebuilt Central Library of 1882, demolished in 1974.]]
[[File:BCL restored after the fire of 1879.jpg|thumb|right|The tall clerestoried reading room of the 1882 library.]]
The first Central Library occupied a site to the south of [[Edmund Street]] and west of the [[Birmingham Town Hall|Town Hall]]. The site had been acquired from the [[Birmingham and Midland Institute]] (BMI) in 1860 after the construction of their own building in 1857 on the corner of [[Paradise Street]] and Ratcliff Place.<ref name=R1>{{Citation | title =Notes on the history of Birmingham Public Libraries (1861–1961)| publisher = Birmingham | year =1962 }}</ref> The BMI building was to include a library, but under the [[Public Libraries Act 1850]] a referendum took place on the creation of a municipal library. After the first vote failed, a second one passed in 1860 causing the BMI and the corporation to cooperate on the joint site.

[[Edward Middleton Barry|E. M. Barry]] was the architect for the BMI building and it was hoped he could be retained as the architect for the adjoining library, but his plans were deemed too expensive for the corporation.<ref name=R1/> [[Martin & Chamberlain|Martin & Chamberlain's]] plans were approved in October 1862 for a tender price of £8,600 with E. M. Barry's classical facade retained in the design.<ref name=R1/> The Lending Library was opened on 6 September 1865 and the Reference Library was opened just over a year later on 26 October 1866. The chief librarian at the time of opening was [[John Davies Mullins]].<ref name="BI-Mullins">{{cite web |title=John Davies Mullins (Chief Librarian) |url=https://www.search.birminghamimages.org.uk/details.aspx?ResourceID=3751&ExhibitionPage=3&ExhibitionID=3308&SearchType=2&ThemeID=289 |website=Birmingham Images |access-date=12 July 2019}}</ref> Initial use of the library was so heavy that the need for an extension was agreed in 1872 but deferred until 1878.<ref name=R1/> On 11 January 1879 a fire broke out behind a wooden partition serving as a temporary wall during building operations.<ref name=R1/> The fire caused extensive damage, with only 1,000 volumes saved from a stock of 50,000.<ref name=R1/>

Plans to rebuild the library after the fire had been approved as early as May 1879. The library was rebuilt on the same site by [[John Henry Chamberlain|J. H. Chamberlain]] in a Lombardic Renaissance style with a tall clerestoried Reading Room.<ref name=R2>{{Citation | last =Foster | first =Andy| title =Birmingham| publisher = Yale University Press| year =2005 | page =77 | isbn =0-300-10731-5}}</ref> At a cost of £54,975 the second Central Library opened on 1 June 1882.<ref name=R1/>

As the number of books increased, the Council resolved in 1938 that a new library was an "urgent necessity", but the outbreak of [[World War II]] meant that it was not until 1960, and the development of a new [[A4400 road|Inner Ring Road]] through the site of the old library, that a general specification was agreed.<ref name=R2/> The library and the BMI building were demolished (the BMI moving to premises a short distance to the east), and the site was part of the [[Birmingham Conservatoire]] and its gardens (until the Conservatoire was relocated to Birmingham City University's City Centre campus in Eastside in 2017, following the redevelopment of Paradise Circus.) The 1970s Central Library was constructed on a site originally occupied by [[Mason Science College]] and Liberal Club.