Johannesburg City Library

Coordinates: 26°12′17″S 28°02′19″E / 26.204789°S 28.038587°E

Johannesburg City Library

"New Library" (1935)
Country South Africa
Type Municipal Public Library
Established 1935
Location Cnr. Market Street & Fraser Street
References: [1]

The Johannesburg City Library is situated in the central business district of the City of Johannesburg.[2] The Library is located in an Italianate building[3] designed by John Perry which first opened in 1935. It was closed in 2009 for three years of extensive modernisation by conservation architect, Jonathan Stone. It was reopened to the public on 14 February 2012,[4] on St. Valentine's Day. The renovation was funded with a conditional grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York of $2-million, and the City of Johannesburg itself spent a further R55-million on the project.[5]

The building features a massive and imposing triple-arch, East facing entrance with metal doors featuring monograms reading "LJ" and "BJ" for the English "Library of Johannesburg" and the Afrikaans "Biblioteek Johannesburg". The Northern and Southern facades are decorate with stone medallions each carved by Peter Kirchhoff with the face of a great literary, scientific or philosophical figure. Larger figures designed by Moses Kottler, representing Literature, Music, Architecture, Medicine, Philosophy and History surround the building. The building is Stone with a terracotta tiled roof. It originally surrounded an atrium, however, during the 2009 - 2012 renovations, a new building was built to fill the atrium.


History

The Johannesburg Library in 1893

The first library was a corrugated iron structure built in 1893 known as the Old Church Building. Five years later, a new structure on Kerk Street was built for the library, but this was a subscription library for members only. It also did not allow access to other members of different races as it was during apartheid era. In 1974 the Johannesburg library became the first public library to open its doors to all races and became the first library to lend books for free. The library moved into its current existing structure in August 1935. The building is a beautiful, Italianate structure sitting across the road from the ANC’s Luthuli House.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Naidoo, Romaana. "Joburg’s jewel re-opened". City of Johannesburg's News Updates. City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  2. ↑ City of Johannesburg. "Region F libraries". Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  3. ↑ Patel, Khadija. "Johannesburg's new library feeds a city's 'tree of knowledge'". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  4. ↑ Naidoo, Romaana. "Joburg’s jewel re-opened". City of Johannesburg's News Updates. City of Johannesburg. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Patel, Khadija. "Johannesburg's new library feeds a city's 'tree of knowledge'". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-02-15-johannesburgs-new-library-feeds-a-citys-tree-of-knowledge/#.U8xQzqY-PtQ
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