It has been a century since The Great Central Goods and Grain Warehouse was in operation, yet the importance of the building has never decreased in its ranks.
Originally the warehouse was fundamental to the to the industrial sector of Lincoln and the Brayford area. As a fully operational warehouse in 1907, however as the demand was being taken away from railways and waterways andbeing transferred to the roads, the warehouse had a lot of competition. This is when the building was sold over to the British Rail in 1967 and the waterway that ran next to the building was filed in.
The Building company Pattinsons, later it become Harcros, owned the building for the next 30 years. After vacating it in 1998 the building was derelict, not to be used u
ntil 2003. In 2003 a property developer purchased the lot with the intention to restore it into luxury penthouse apartments, however, the Univeristy were able to lease the lot. The architects were able to design the library and it was fully operational within 12 months.
In the restoration the old timber doorways at the front of the building were taken away and replaced with glass pannelling, however many of the originally building was to stay put. The bricks were cleaned, the steel beams have been shot blasted and painted and the original gears are still scattered throughout the lot.
The image of the library was to mix the contemporary with the original, and the spectacular that is the glass and the varied colours of lights that around the library were meant to be appreciated by the public as well as students.
“It is a sense of integration between students and the public, this idea that those inside should be able to see out and those outside should be able to see in, that has been the uppermost in the minds of the architects” (Weekes, 2006, 5)
The digital and modern world, though prominent does not overshadow this evident history of the building. It is now a the university’s obligation to represent the original conditions of the warehouse, and not to loose it to contemporary culture.
Figure 1
Figure 2Figure 3
Weekes, A. (2006) The Great Central Warehouse University Library. Lincoln: The University of Lincoln.
