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Northern Neogothic

Will Pryce’s Photographs of the John Rylands Library

John Rylands Library, © Will Pryce

Will Pryce is one of the best architectural photographers out there and Country Life put him to good use for an article earlier this year about Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

The library was founded by the deliciously named Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her late husband, the merchant philanthropist John Rylands who became Manchester’s first multi-millionaire.

Manchester experienced a flowering of northern neogothicism in the nineteenth century, and the John Rylands Library is sometimes used as a film location standing in for Pugin’s Palace of Westminster, most recently in the 2017 film ‘Darkest Hour’. The city’s magnificent Town Hall fulfils this role even more often — c.f. the UK telly original of ‘House of Cards’. Scandalously, Manchester’s City Council no longer meet in their original council chamber, having decamped to the nonetheless handsome 1938 extension built next to it.

The John Rylands Library (and research institute) is here to stay though.

For more of Pryce’s work, see his website.

John Rylands Library, © Will Pryce

John Rylands Library, © Will Pryce

John Rylands Library, © Will Pryce

John Rylands Library, © Will Pryce

Published at 12:15 pm on Friday 8 October 2021. Categories: Architecture Tags: , .
Comments

Glorious. But you fail to name the architect. Is this to further his unaccountable neglect?

— Joseph Sire 9 Oct 2021 5:38 pm
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