State Library of Victoria, Melbourne #1
I remember being taken as a four year old to this library where my father worked in 1948. This is the domed main reading room of the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. The dome came later, between 1909 and 1913, but the library was established in 1854. According to the Wikipedia article, it was one of the first free libraries in the world, and in 2023 was claimed to be the third busiest globally. In large part that would be due to the fact that what was once a nearby technical college on the edge of the Melbourne CBD was upgraded to the status of a University. The surroundings are high-energy, with young people apparently having a sense of purpose regularly criss-crossing the precinct of learning, culture, and eating.
The reading room of the British Museum in London and the Library of Congress in Washington were said to be inspirational models for the design. The diameter is a few metres less than that of the former, while the height to the top is somewhat greater.
I imagine the central construction (a cross between a crow’s nest and a pulpit) was once occupied by stern ladies or gentlemen with glaring eyes and loud 'shushes' ready to target anyone foolish enough to eat, talk, or drop a pin. For the next image, I had hoped to get into that enclosure and place my camera on the floor to photograph the roof from below dead centre. However, the doors were closed off and I could not get the desired angle...
From its inception, the library has always been part of a combined complex that also displays museum, and art gallery collections. It now covers an entire city block of twenty-two interconnected buildings, built in a continual process of extension and renewal (see geotag). Today, while the major parts of the museum and art gallery collections have been moved to dedicated locations, smaller specialised museum and art galleries still remain on display within the facility.
An earlier posting shows a street view of the building frontage, in which the top of the dome is clearly visible:
State Library of Victoria, Melbourne #1
I remember being taken as a four year old to this library where my father worked in 1948. This is the domed main reading room of the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. The dome came later, between 1909 and 1913, but the library was established in 1854. According to the Wikipedia article, it was one of the first free libraries in the world, and in 2023 was claimed to be the third busiest globally. In large part that would be due to the fact that what was once a nearby technical college on the edge of the Melbourne CBD was upgraded to the status of a University. The surroundings are high-energy, with young people apparently having a sense of purpose regularly criss-crossing the precinct of learning, culture, and eating.
The reading room of the British Museum in London and the Library of Congress in Washington were said to be inspirational models for the design. The diameter is a few metres less than that of the former, while the height to the top is somewhat greater.
I imagine the central construction (a cross between a crow’s nest and a pulpit) was once occupied by stern ladies or gentlemen with glaring eyes and loud 'shushes' ready to target anyone foolish enough to eat, talk, or drop a pin. For the next image, I had hoped to get into that enclosure and place my camera on the floor to photograph the roof from below dead centre. However, the doors were closed off and I could not get the desired angle...
From its inception, the library has always been part of a combined complex that also displays museum, and art gallery collections. It now covers an entire city block of twenty-two interconnected buildings, built in a continual process of extension and renewal (see geotag). Today, while the major parts of the museum and art gallery collections have been moved to dedicated locations, smaller specialised museum and art galleries still remain on display within the facility.
An earlier posting shows a street view of the building frontage, in which the top of the dome is clearly visible: