Reading Room

A wooden ladder is propped against a book shelf. On the ladder is a rectangular black sign embossed with white lettering ‘for staff use only’. A green cardboard sign sits on the top of a well-worn wooden table reminding visitors that ‘no food or drink maybe consumed in this room’. The two solid wooden tables in the room are framed by several tapestry effect chairs. As I survey the room, I’m drawn to the huge folio sized books including, Taschen’s Cabinet of Curiosities and another about World Heritage Sites. Turning around I see a gilt framed oil painting of Ralph Thoresby FRS, surrounded by copies of Ingleby and Greenhow parish registers 1530-1800. The heaviness of the furniture and the solidity of the books around me are comforting. The reading room provides a sense of weight to history and bolsters my connection to the city and region. The materiality of the objects in the room contrasts sharply with my the flickering screens, garish neon advertising boards and brutal concrete architecture of the busy streets surrounding the library .