Levenshulme’s Culture Hub ... another story from Tony Goulding

Levenshulme Old Library

This building currently houses the studio of All F.M. 96.9, a Manchester Community Radio Station “The Real Voice of Manchester” and a Community Arts Centre with a varied range of activities. 

It was built in 1904 as one of the libraries gifted by the philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist.

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835 Andrew Carnegie emigrated with his family as a 12-year-old to the United States. 

Having amassed a huge fortune by establishing the American steel industry, in the form of The Pittsburgh Carnegie Steel Company, he spent the last 20 years of his life engaged in various philanthropic endeavours. 

Andrew Carnegie in 1913

His main benefactions were the provision of upwards of 2,500 public libraries, worldwide, of which over 650 were in the U.K.  These included, as well as this one in Levenshulme, Stockport’s Central Library and those at Eccles and the 3, then new, suburbs of South Manchester – Didsbury, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and latterly, Withington.

The Library's Foundation Stone

The Carnegie funding of a library was dependent on the local authority meeting a number of requirements to demonstrate their community’s need for a library and its commitment to sustain the operating costs once the new library had been built. Design plans for the new building would then be sent to Carnegie’s office in New York, for approval. (1)

In 1904,  Levenshulme was the first area of South Manchester to provide its citizens with a free library in this way, while it was still governed by the Levenshulme Urban District Council. The residents of Didsbury, Withington and Chorlton-cum-Hardy had to wait until they were incorporated into the City of Manchester. Each area was promised a library as an inducement to vote for incorporation. (2)

The new library was opened on the 3rd December, 1904 by Mr. C. A. Cripps K.C. (3) the member of parliament for the Stretford constituency which at that time included Levenshulme.

 

Library side view

A notable user of the library was Lord Norman Foster the renowned architect, responsible for the designs of “The Gherkin” and the New Wembley Stadium amongst many others, who was born in neighbouring Reddish and lived from the age of two at 4, Crescent Grove in Levenshulme. He was an avid reader and frequent visitor to the library as he studied Architecture at The University of Manchester.

The library closed when the service removed to the new “Arcadia” Library and Leisure Centre on Stockport Road opened in February, 2016. The building remained empty for almost two years before being re-opened as a community arts centre and the new studios of All F.M. 96.9 Radio. 

  All F.M. began broadcasting in 2000 and prior to its re-location to the Old Library was based at a former doctor’s surgery, 19, Albert Road, Levenshulme. Its output is a varied mixture of shows aimed at giving a “voice” to all the different communities in the area. In 2019/20 it won the award: Community Radio Station of the Year and more recently was a recipient of The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Immediately opposite the library at the junction of Barlow Road and Cromwell Grove is another iconic building of old Levenshulme, the public baths.

An early user of this facility was Ethel Ivy “Sunny” Lowry, one of the first British women to swim across the English Channel, who lived at Lindeth Lodge, Rushford Avenue, Levenshulme. 

The Swimming Baths showing separate entrances for Males and Females!

She was born, in neighbouring Longsight on the 2nd January, 1911, so was only 22-years-old when she accomplished her epic feat on the 29th August, 1933. 

Built in 1921, it closed on the same day as the library opposite but sadly, as yet, has not had a new lease of life.

Her father, William Henry Lowry, who was a successful fish and game merchant sadly died just over 3 months after Ethel Ivy completed her swim. She was also said to be the second cousin of the celebrated artist L. S. Lowry.

Pictures; Levenshulme Library and Swimming Baths from the collection of Tony Goulding, side view of the library courtesy of Andrea Martinez. Andrew Carnegie in 1913 by Theodore C. Marceau in Public Domain from United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c01767.

Notes

1) Famously, Manchester City Council submitted the plans for the Library at Chorlton-cum-Hardy aboard the ill-fated liner “The Titanic” and they had to be re-sent.

2) Although both Chorlton and Didsbury soon got their libraries (in 1914 and 1915 respectively), Withington had to wait until 1927 before the council made good on this promise.

3) Sir Charles Alfred Cripps (later Lord Parmoor) was a Conservative member of Parliament who famously "crossed the house" and later became Lord President of the Council and Leaderof the House of Lords in the Cabinet of Ramsay MacDonald’s first Labour Goverment of 1923. He was also appointed Britain’s representative to the newly-formed League of Nations of which he had been a great supporter. His  youngest son Richard Stafford Cripps held a number of posts in both the Wartime and the post-war Labour Cabinets, culminating in the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer.