Where and what is the Shakespeare Library?
The original Shakespeare Library was designed by local architect J.H. Chamberlain specifically to hold the books collected by the library and its patrons. When the old library was demolished to build the present one, the wooden panels and bookcases and other fittings from the original library were rescued and later fitted into one of the rooms of the former Library Exhibition Hall. This room has been named the Shakespeare Memorial Room Visits can be arranged to see it by contacting security staff at the Central Library and some meetings and small events like poetry readings are held in it from time to time. The Shakespeare Library also refers to the large research collection on Shakespeare which is now housed on the third floor of the Central Library and is part of the Arts, Languages and Literature reference department. It contains early editions of Shakespeare plays, criticisms, biography, stage photographs and portraits of prominent actors along with foreign editions, books on the s
