There's nothing like a good catchy name for making something memorable. Having been brought up in Liverpool and been involved professionally many years ago with the Library, Museum and Art Gallery which were three joined or adjacent buildings on William Brown Street owned by Liverpool City Council I knew the three edifices simply as The Musuem, The Central Library but always the Walker Art Gallery. I have discovered over the years since that one only has to mention "The Walker" in art circles and someone in the company will know it well.
The Central Library had a magnificent circular reading room called The Picton Reading Room. Most of the Library has been completely revamped in recent years to bring it into the digital age. However, the magnificent Picton Library remains, as always, a haven of peace and tranquillity in the modern world.
Liverpool University had many libraries open for studying in but when I
was there the beautiful new Arts Library with it's adjacent lawns had
just opened and I wrote many an essay seated looking longingly at
students basking in the summer sun outside. Later when I was
studying at the Liverpool Polytechnic (a mass of dislocated buildings in
the city which had been the College of Commerce and the Technical
College etc) there was no library that I can recall and I often retired
to The Picton instead.
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| The Picton Reading Room from William Brown Street |
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| The Picton: no pen and paper these days |
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| The Picton: a better idea of its magnificance |
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| The incredible, and beautiful, interior of the new Central Library |
