Liverpool's Library

In our last post, we showed outside photos of the Liverpool Library. In this post, we'll show you the inside of the library. Excited yet? 

The main library had been recently gutted & remodeled. It is very open, white, and modern. What impressed us the most were the floating staircases. Although they're sleek and modern, they evoked Hogwart's moving staircases in some way. Either that or the classic Escher staircase drawing that was tacked up on many a dorm room wall. 

Liverpool's Library's floating staircases

Liverpool Library's floating staircases

I couldn't seem to get more than two staircases in any shot, but there were five floors, so when you looked up from the bottom or down from the top, it was an array of criss-crossing floating staircases. We thought it was super cool!

Staircases as seen from below

After spending a half an hour or so cruising the main library, we walked through a doorway into the reading room. We were instantly transported back to Victorian England! Three floors of bookcases in a large round room, studded with desks and a few standing bookcases on the ground floor. 

Liverpool Library's historic reading room

Bill was in heaven in this room filled with old, mostly scientific books. He spent at least 15 minutes reading a 400-page book on Roman sun dials and how Romans used their sun dials to tabulate earth's movement within the universe and rotation around the sun. 

Bill in the reading room

Bill perusing book after book after book!

Pictures don't do this reading room justice. It was quite impressive. We tried to be quiet as we walked around and took pictures as there were people studying and working at most of the tables. But I know I was ooh-ing and aah-ing during our visit - sorry, Liverpool Library users!!

The beautiful reading room

The roof of the reading room was a great dome with a skylight to let some natural light shine down. As we were in the reading room close to it's closing time, you can see the reading room's center lamp reflected in the skylight above. 

Liverpool library's reading room ceiling

There were a few rooms off of the reading room that housed rare and special books. My favorite was one of the original Birds of America books, drawn by John James Audubon. You can't tell in the photo, but the book's pages were about three feet long by two feet wide! Audubon wanted to make sure most birds were drawn life sized, therefore, the large format book.

One of the rare, original copies of
John James Audubon's Birds of America

I found a photo on the internet that showcases the size of this book. Pretty big, yes?

Not my photo - Audubon's Birds of America