Image:WrenLibraryCambridge.jpg

The Wren Library, Cambridge.

The library, designed by Christopher Wren in 1676, was one of the first libraries to feature large windows. Prior to this, the high value of books tended to mean they were kept in fortress like, monastic libraries. With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century and book prices falling, Wren thought it would be a good idea to be able to read books in bright natural light.

The architecture is deceptive, the ground floor is an open colonnade with a ceiling much lower than implied from the exterior proportions of the building. The body of the library lies between the top of the ground floor open windows and the bottom of the large glazed, upper row of windows. The upper windows then rise above the top of the book stacks to a high roof, making the library a light a lofty room.

Photograph © Andrew Dunn, 4 November 2004.

Website: http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License (cc-by-sa-2.0). In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it under this or a similar cc-by-sa license.

Originally uploaded to En Wiki - 07:31, 5 November 2004 . . Solipsist (Talk | contribs | block) . . 1024×647 (106,931 bytes)

• Wren Library, Cambridge