page_title: Burley Branch Library
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Burley Branch Library / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque in entrance hall of library celebrating its origins
context_page_description: The Burley Branch Library was open on Cardigan Road, Burley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, between 1926 and 2016. It was established on vacant industrial land adjacent to a printing works and railway depot by Leeds City Council, and was majority financed by Carnegie. It is built to a design by Gilbert Burdett Howcroft. The Council closed the library in February 2016 due to its poor condition and being surplus to operational requirements. The building was listed at Grade II in 2017 and remains awaiting redevelopment.
context_section_description: Burley was developed following the sale of the Cardigan estate in the 1860s. The branch library was established by the Leeds library system to serve the expanding local community. According to historical maps, the site was empty land in 1893, next to a railway depot. In 1908 the future site of the library was still vacant, although unlabelled industrial buildings had been built to the north. By 1921, a printing works was built to the south of the plot, with the future site of the library possibly forming an enclosed yard associated with the works.  A contract for the construction of the library (dated March 1925) between Leeds Corporation and William Simpkiss of Lambourne and Company Ltd is held by the West Yorkshire Archive Service.
  A plaque inside the library attributes its design to the architect Gilbert Burdett Howcroft of Uppermill and gives a date of 15 June 1926 for its opening by Alderman Sir Percy Jackson, Chairman of the West Riding Education Committee, and a trustee of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. The
  library cost £8,338 (equivalent to £487,500 in 2019) to construct, with most of the funding coming from the Carnegie UK Trust and the rest from Leeds Council.
  The library was then in continual use until its closure by the local authority in February 2016. This was based on health and safety concerns arising from its general poor condition (especially non-compliance with fire regulations), an adjoining landowner having expressed a desire to acquire the property for incorporation with developments on adjacent sites, and the "limited potential for refurbishment or redevelopment in isolation". An August 2016 report from the authority recommended that the subject property be declared surplus to Council requirements with a view to a disposal at optimum value.
  Following its closure, the library was given a Grade II listing by Historic England in June 2017. Reasons for designation were cited as the design quality ("neo-Georgian design displays a careful attention to detail that belies its tiny scale"), the survival of original internal features, and being a "well-preserved example of a small inner-city branch library".
  An application for planning and listed building consent by Park Lane Group, a property developer with numerous student flats in the area, to refurbish the former library building as a co-working space and to build a five-storey rear extension of 60 co-living apartments was approved in 2019. A previous proposal to demolish the original building and erect a new five-storey residential building in its place was in development, but after the listing designation, was changed to a new design retaining the library. However, no building works have taken place as of August 2020.
caption: Plaque in the library's entrance hall
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