Thanks for the Libraries

William’s Libraries

He was the benefactor of three libraries in different areas of Newcastle so people could benefit from reading and study. In 1896, the first of his branch libraries, the Stephenson Library, opened in Elswick Road, costing £4000. This was near his home at Elswick House, Elswick Road. The library is now the West End Women and Girls Centre. 

In 1898, the Victoria Branch library opened in Heaton Park Road, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The walls of the ground floor storey are of rubble stone, sneck faced, and dressed stone to the quoins, windows and doors: the upper part is all of Penshaw pressed red bricks with stone mullioned windows. The roof is covered with Madeley Wood branded tiles. On the roof there is a turret, the dome of which is covered with copper. The lighting of the library is by windows commencing at 9 feet above the floor, and externally these windows form gablets, springing from the roof.

Newcastle Daily Chronicle 6^th October 1898.

Who would not want to enter such a magnificent building? Today it is partly used as a dental practice. 

In about 1976, as a Secondary School pupil, I had a work experience week in the Heaton Park Road library. I remember it as a large airy light room. I think the librarian was in the centre with all the ticket pockets in alphabetical and date order. Each ticket held the card from the borrowed book which was slipped back into the book when it was returned. It was very quiet and some people stayed for hours just reading the newspapers. The librarians visited a local nursery to read to the children and let them choose some books from a selection. 

These two libraries were the first in Europe to adopt the Dewey Decimal system thanks to librarian Andrew Keogh. 

In 1908, Lady Stephenson Library, named after Sir William’s late wife, opened in Walker on the corner of Scrogg Road and Welbeck Road. Here is a description of that library. “The floor of the entrance -hall is laid with Breccia marble by the Art Pavements and Decorations Ltd., London. The windows are all filled with lead glazing from designs by the architect and executed by Atkinsons Brothers and Reed, Millican and Company. The staircase window is filled with stained glass, and contains the donor’s coat of arms. The arms of the late Lady Stephenson are carved in a stone panel over the entrance, and the city arms in one of the gablets”. It is now a publishers.

My library journey started in the 1960s at Lady Stephenson Library or Walker library as we called it. I was five years old and lived just a minute along the street. I was with my sister, four years older and asked the lady at the desk if I could join. She gave me a white card to fill in with name and address then she gave a little green ticket holder. Each book chosen was stamped with a date. I liked to see how many stamps there were and how old the dates were. At first, I thought you had to keep reading the book over and over again until the date on the book until my dad said you could take it back before the date. The children’s entrance was a separate door and my memory is of a kind of circular room with skylights through which the sun shone and a circular wooden desk in the centre for the librarians. It was quite beautiful. When you were older, you could go in the Junior Library in the next-door room which was a longer room with windows facing onto Welbeck Road. There they had a children’s classics section with books like A Tale of Two Cities or A Christmas Carol. I loved them. In the last year of Junior School, once a week, our class would visit the library to change books and we always enjoyed the trip out of school. The books for adults were upstairs and the staircase seemed really grand with stone steps. Later, in the 1970s, after refurbishment, all the books were on the ground floor. After later refurbishments, there were meeting rooms in an upstairs extension and the children’s library was used as a nursery or playgroup.  I was a member of the Walker History Society which held meetings in one of the upstairs Community Rooms in the 80s and 90s.

Sir William Haswell Stephenson died in 1918 and is buried in Elswick (St. John’s) cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne. There must be tens of thousands of Newcastle residents like me who are grateful for these magnificent buildings filled with books.  I’m glad they are still standing but sad they are no longer libraries.