Caruso St John wins Gladstone’s Library design brief

Architecture practice Caruso St John has won the RIBA competition to design a new building for Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire, alongside the redevelopment of the existing grade one-listed Victorian library and surrounding gardens.

Caruso St John beat AOC Architecture, Hopkins Architects and Simpson & Brown.

Gladstone’s Living Heritage Project is intended to deliver a flexible, contemporary space, to enable the expansion of an events programme including lectures and debates, as part of the library’s strategy to reach a broader audience.

The building is Britain’s only Prime Ministerial library, in that it stands in tribute to its founder, the Victorian statesman William Ewart Gladstone; and is the country’s only residential library. Formerly known as St Deiniol’s, the building has 26 guest bedrooms, a 50-cover bistro and space for conferencing and events.

The project will be dedicated to three defining themes of Gladstone’s political career: human rights and genocide; the evolution of democracy; and religious tolerance. These will be the focus of a permanent exhibition and will form part of the library’s future work and mission.

A previous proposal for the library’s expansion, covering an events space, enlarged restaurant, office facilities and more bedrooms, previously went out to tender in 2015. OMI emerged as winner from a field that included Donald Insall Associates, Austin-Smith:Lord, AOC, Purcell and Shepherd Epstein Hunter.

Gladstone’s Library is currently fundraising for the project.

Charlie Gladstone, president of Gladstone’s Library, said: “When we first decided to embark on an ambitious extension of Gladstone’s Library we were clear that we wanted to work with a really good architect. Our aim was to further enhance the Library by creating a building of true beauty and national importance. And so we’re thrilled to be working with a globally recognised firm with a phenomenal track record. Gladstone’s Library is widely regarded as one of the world’s most important centres of liberal thought and our extension will help to further our reputation and reach.”

Peter Francis, warden and director of Gladstone’s Library commented: “Caruso St John’s design not only fulfils our brief but will have a very low environmental impact and will minimise energy use beyond what we imagined was possible. All materials are local, renewable and recyclable. It is a wonderful design so without any hesitation at all we can enthusiastically and eagerly start to find the funds to realise both our own and Caruso St John’s ambitions.”

Your Comments

Read our comments policy

Do people still go to libraries?

By Verum

No, libraries are absolutely pointless and a complete waste of resources.

By Guti

Some comments on this show the absolute pig-ignorance of the posters regarding the purpose and function of Gladstones Library. Absolute philistines.

By Du Be Ous

A lot of people on the Place North West have never been a library – certainly not an architecture/planning/development library anyway

By Anonymous

A library was a place (real or virtual) where knowledge was obtainable: librarians helped citizens to identify and obtain appropriate reference materials on any subject from other libraries worldwide; those materials were often physical or electronic books, manuscripts, recordings, films, historical, scientific documents ).Public libraries were considered a common good and their services were provided at low cost or free of charge. Tory voters agreed that public sources of knowledge are a stupid waste of public money. If you want knowledge, pay for a private librarian to advise you and buy the reference materials yourself.

By James Yates

Libraries gave us power.

By Gene Walker

Flippin’ eck! As a engineer passionate about good architecture, I find some of these views shocking. I don’t know anything about the bid or competition but I know the library is always full and with a waiting list of people who travel from all over the world to visit and stay, and that it serves fantastic value, wholesome food. You wont know ’til you go.
Living libraries, like this one, show to younger generations how the past shapes our future. The image some have of a ‘Mills and Boon’ stuffed local library is out of keeping with Gladstone’s. They work alongside Wiki, Google and the internet ‘lest we be overcome with fake news’.

By jane Harrad-Roberts

@ Anon – I can see your point, in fact I have never been a library of any kind.

By Anonymous

Related Articles

Sign up to receive the Place Daily Briefing

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Join more than 13,000 property professionals and sign up to receive your free daily round-up of built environment news direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

"*" indicates required fields

Your Job Field*
Other regional Publications - select below