Parliamentary Library Tops HuffPost’s New List of Gorgeous Libraries

Long-standing Slaw readers may remember our salaciously titled post on beautiful libraries. The Huffington Post picked up on the idea in January and today the Parliamentary Library is topping the poll of the second batch.

Times are changing for libraries everywhere. But even as many libraries build their digital collections and amp up their technological offerings, we thought we’d take a step back and show our appreciation for the beauty of many of these vast collections of books. Below are some of the most amazingly beautiful libraries from around the world.

Slaw readers can vote – and suggest what’s missing: my candidates for the prettiest missing law libraries would be the Great Library at Osgoode Hall

and the Codrington Library at All Souls, which looks like this:

Cod

Comments

  1. The Osgoode Law Library is indeed gorgeous.

    Although not in the same universe at all, I find that the Bibliothèque Nationale in Montréal has its moments as well (not law).

    BN

  2. From day one I have coveted the American Room in the Great Library:

    If the day comes when the Benchers of the Law Society decide that they don’t want it any longer, I’ll take it off their hands.

    By the way, more pics of the Great Library are available here.

  3. Manchester’s community newspaper has a review of the Law Library which dates from 1884.

    It’s a jewelbox of a Gothic structure that shows how to squeeze charm into a tiny site in the city centre. You get three bays with big windows decked out in Venetian Gothic (Venetian Gothic combines the usual pointed arch stuff of Gothic with a bit of Eastern influence). These are all rich in tracery and cute detail. The first floor reading room is indicated by the oriel window, and there’s a grand entrance too.

    Nice photos of the interiors.

    MLL

    MLL2

    MLL 3

  4. Some of these photos are just \mouth-watering\ if you like books.

    It’ll be interesting to see how those great libraries stand the test of time in the new digital age.