Leeds Library, Subscription library in Leeds, England
Leeds Library is a subscription library in a Greek Revival building on Commercial Street in central Leeds, England. The interior spans several floors with high ceilings, wooden shelves, and reading rooms that now extend into adjoining premises.
The library was founded in 1768, making it the longest continuously operating subscription library in the British Isles. Its current Greek Revival building replaced an earlier site in the 19th century.
The Leeds Library is one of the few still-active membership libraries in Britain, which gives it a particular role in the city's reading culture. Browsing its wooden shelves, visitors find books from many centuries side by side, which sets the space apart from an ordinary public library.
Access to the collection requires a membership, which covers borrowing and use of the reading rooms. The building sits in central Leeds and is easy to reach on foot from the main streets of the city center.
Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, was one of the founding members of the library. His name is tied to its very beginning, connecting modern visitors to a moment in 18th-century scientific history.
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