Temples of Knowledge

From the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries wealthy Britons embraced the classical world through their education, on the Grand Tour, and in classical-style country houses and public buildings. Towns and rural estates were remodelled as recreations of classical landscapes. There is little evidence to assess the reception of the classical world among working people, but the widespread use of classical architecture created encounters with antiquity. Driven by Enlightenment philosophers, paternalistic industrialists, and working people’s desire to create a better future for themselves, mechanics’ institutes and public libraries were established from the early nineteenth century, buildings used by working people in which they could also seek inspiration from classical texts. The prevalence of classical architecture for these ‘poor man’s universities’ emphasised the connection between the timeless wisdom of Antiquity and nineteenth- and twentieth-century belief in self-improvement through education. The international embrace of this belief is seen in the legacy of Andrew Carnegie, who funded libraries in many American and British towns. He was not alone in this philanthropy, and this chapter will examine examples from 1660 to 2016 in North-East England, including the work of religious groups, subscription societies, industrialists and local authorities who employed classical architecture for their libraries.