Newcastle City Library

The new City Library building is named the Charles Avison Building after the 18th century Newcastle composer. Our new state of the art City Library opened its doors for the first time on Sunday 7 June 2009 at 11am. The main entrance is through a dramatic blue glass box on New Bridge Street West with a second entrance on Princess Square.

The library holds a stunning range of new non-fiction titles as well as an integrated reference library. We have a superb new café, express email facilities, meeting rooms and the Bewick Hall – a performance space that can seat up to 185 people. There are also superb display and exhibition facilities.

Level 3 includes a wonderful new children’s library, adult fiction and community languages. It also has a music and audio visual section for music scores, DVDs and CDs. Level 4 is the main floor for free public computer use. Over 30 computers can be booked free of charge for up to 2 hours. There are over 100 computers throughout the building, including the facility to scan documents.

Level 6 provides a stunning local studies and family history service, with unique local collections, generous research and study space and the latest standard of protection (BS 5454) for Newcastle’s unique printed resources. Here you will see the Newcastle Collection – an exhibition of the very special rare books that the City Library owns.

Throughout the building are features such as limestone flooring, specially commissioned furniture, the latest self-service facilities, and specialist book exhibition areas. We hope you visit the library and that you find it a building to ‘delight and inspire’.