Description of the attraction
The Chetham Library, located in Manchester, is Britain's oldest public library. Chatham Hospital, which unites the library and the Chatham School of Music under its roof, was founded in 1653 by the will of Humphrey Chatham. Since then, the library has operated as an independent charitable organization and does not charge any fees for the use of its funds.
Now the library's funds number 100,000 volumes, of which 60,000 were published before 1851. In addition, newspapers, magazines, archival materials, etc. are presented here.
The library is located in a historic building in the center of Manchester. The building was purchased in 1653 in accordance with the will of Humphrey Chatham. Twenty-four executors were involved in the procurement of a collection of books and manuscripts in a wide variety of areas of knowledge, so that the library could compare with the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Since the opening of the library, 24 carved oak armchairs for readers have survived.
It is curious that originally the books were placed on the shelves by size. The first catalog of the library was compiled only in 1791, it was written in Latin and only the size and theme of the book were indicated. Books were chained to shelves - this was a common practice at the time. They ceased to be chained in the middle of the 18th century.
