Library Extension & Refurbishment

When the new refurbished Library opened in 2012, the number of reader spaces increased from 60 to 138. The building is very popular and well used, and has grown considerably in size.

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The extension and refurbishment was carried out in such a way that the new Library could open to students in October 2012 as planned, thanks to the dedication of the architects, Kilburn Nightingale and builders, Killby & Gayford, and the forbearance of the Library staff.

The results are magnificent! The new entrance, at the junction of the original building with the 1970s extension, has been a great success and users are now greeted by staff able to give help and advice. Readers then have a wide choice of where to go to work: the formal Fane Reading Room, redecorated and slightly reorganised but largely unchanged, the more intimate David Williams Room at the end of it, the individual study spaces on the three floors of the extension, the relaxed surroundings of the new Peter Rickard Room on the roof of the extension, or the McDonald Meeting Room. They can take a break in the Wates Room, or use the computer facilities in the John & Dorothy Meggitt Room.

The Special Collections are now housed in rooms with appropriate environmental conditions and visiting scholars have suitable places in which to work.

The work was completed in time for the new academic year and on budget, and we are extremely grateful to our members and Friends whose generosity made the project possible. Present and future generations of students and researchers have much to thank them for.