| York Library | |
|---|---|
 The library in 2018 | |
 | |
| 53°57′41″N 1°05′10″W / 53.9614°N 1.0862°W | |
| Location | Museum Street, York, England |
| Established |
|
| Architects | Brierley and Rutherford (1927) |
| Other information | |
| Website | exploreyork |
| Designations | |
|---|---|
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Central Library |
| Designated | 14 March 1997 |
| Reference no. | 1257077 |
York Library (York Explore Library and Archive) is situated on Museum Street in York, England. It became a Grade II listed building in 1997.
York's first subscription library opened in 1794, but it was only in 1893 that the city's first public library was established on Clifford Street by the then Duke and Duchess of York, in a building formerly occupied by the Institute of Popular Science and Literature. This was the period when free public libraries were supplanting subscription libraries, and the creation of York's public library was the city's way of marking Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. In 1917 the public library was merged with the York Subscription Library.
The present library building on Museum Street was designed by Brierley and Rutherford, the firm of Walter Brierley, and opened in 1927. Nikolaus Pevsner described the building critically as a belated use of Edwardian Baroque. Since its opening there have been several extensions, most recently in 2014, when the library became home to the City Archives.
