Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/198

174 are all constructed of pitch-pine, stained and varnished.

The first floor is entirely occupied by the reading-room, and is fitted up with newspaper racks and reading tables, and a small bookcase for reference books. It is a lofty room, ceiled half-way up to the roof, and lighted by windows on all sides, skylights over the wings, and a lantern light over the octagon. Special attention has been given to the artificial lighting and ventilation throughout. A number of flues have been carried up in the walls, and into these are passed the tubes from the ventilating sunlights. For the inlet of fresh air, hopper casements are fixed in many parts of the building. The warming of the building is accomplished with hot water in pipes and radiators.

The elevations are faced with grey bricks, with red terra-cotta in windows, door, cornice, and string courses. A feature has been made of the octagonal, which is covered by a hipped roof, and this is crowned by a square clock turret, the total height from street level to top of iron vane being about 81 feet.

The cost of the building and fittings has been about £4100, and the work was carried out from the designs of Messrs. J. W. & R. F. Beaumont, architects, Manchester.

A fine range of municipal buildings has been erected in Openshaw, and have been provided jointly by the Manchester Corporation and the Legatees of the late Sir Joseph Whitworth. They were opened in 1894, and are built from the