Alistair Hardaker | Image: Proposed events space and café at The Portico Library (Purcell Architecture)
Closure planned spring 2028 with reopening in early March 2030 to welcome 95,000 visitors annually.
Manchester’s Portico Library has secured £6.4m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to transform its historic building.
The project, part of the £12m Portico Reunited campaign, will restore all three floors to library use, improve accessibility, and create new learning spaces. The transformed library is expected to welcome around 95,000 visitors annually upon reopening in early 2030.
The restoration will bring the ground floor and basement back into library use for the first time in a century, housing its historic collection of 25,000 books and archive material. It will also introduce a new bookshop. Plans include urgent repairs and restoration of the historic interiors and glazed dome, a new lift, a Changing Places toilet and a quiet room.
The Portico LightBox, a new architectural feature, will connect the ground floor, first floor and dome.
Dr Thom Keep, librarian and CEO of The Portico Library, said: “We have listened to thousands of people about what the Portico could become, and their ideas and experiences have helped shape these plans.
“Our ambition is a library that belongs to the whole city: a place to discover remarkable collections, question the stories we have inherited, and create new possibilities together. “
The building is expected to close for construction in late spring 2028 and open in early March 2030.
During construction, the library plans to continue work through its Porti-Go! programme, bringing collections and activities into temporary spaces, community settings and online.
