Renovation of the College Library
There has recently been a major, and long overdue, renovation of the Library, which is at the centre of the academic life of Emmanuel College. The Library is housed in a separate building, erected in 1910 as lecture rooms to the design of Leonard Stokes and converted in 1930 to form the College Library. An extension was built in 1972-4 to provide book stacks, office space and accommodation for the College's archives, and the Stokes building was reorganised. The renovation in 2009-10 carried out much-needed updating and improvements.
View pictures of the Library Renovation Project
The Project Work
The building work involved: an upgrading of the Library to provide more reader spaces and book and archive storage; access for wheelchair users; and improved facilities for readers (including lavatories), environmental controls, security for the rare book collections and staff accommodation. The architects were Kilburn Nightingale.
The core scheme comprised:
- refurbishment of the Stokes building, enhancing the fine quality of its spaces
- replacement of the brick cladding to the 1970s extension with a ‘wrapping’ of new construction to accommodate individual reader spaces and provide a much improved internal environment;
- provision of 60 new reader spaces;
- a new entrance and reception area, directly linked to all the primary spaces in the building and forming a new heart to the Library;
- an extension into the Library garden providing exhibition and archive space and new access to the rare book rooms on the ground floor, a computer room on the first floor, a readers' common room above and on the third floor a meeting room;
- waterproofing of the basement and provision of rolling stacks for archive storage;
- an improved connection between the old and new buildings to enable access by wheelchair users;
- dedicated reader spaces for those consulting our rare books and archives, which can be well supervised by staff;
- construction of a new room on the roof of the 1970s building;
- the future creation of a new court between the Library and South Court.
Problems Solved
The work was needed because:
- we did not have enough reader spaces to satisfy student needs and, unlike other libraries in Cambridge, we had no individual study spaces at all;
- substantial additional shelf space was required, sufficient to provide for future growth in the undergraduate library;
- environmental conditions were unsatisfactory: in the 1909/30 building, the heating in the Reading Room was inadequate in winter, whilst the 1970s extension became uncomfortably hot in the summer;
- environmental and security controls for rooms housing the special collections were inadequate;
- there was inadequate space for archive material;
- there was a problem with leaks and damp in the basement, which restricted the use of this area;
- there was no wheelchair access to the library and provision for the disabled more generally was inadequate;
- the lift was too small and did not give access to all levels;
- the entrance was too far from the staff area and could not be adequately supervised;
- there were no cloakroom or lavatory facilities for readers;
- more space and better facilities were needed for library staff;
- facilities for readers of our special collections were cramped, noisy and difficult to supervise.