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McDonald Road Library

McDonald Road Library
McDonald Road Library
2024 marks the 120th anniversary of the opening of McDonald Road Library, or as its name was then, the Nelson Hall and East Branch Library, McDonald Road. To mark the occasion, this exhibition brings together a selection of pictures of the library through the years.

The building was designed by Henry (Harry) Ramsay Taylor, who was born in Stranraer in 1863. He was educated there but completed his schooling at Glasgow Academy working in his father’s office from 1878 until March 1880 when he transferred to the Lessels architectural practice in Edinburgh. He completed his apprenticeship under Lessels & Son and remained assistant to James Lessels, becoming a partner in 1890.
Much of the work of the practice depended on the connection with Nelson’s the publishers which had been established by James’ father, John Lessels. James also designed Nelson’s large printworks which stood on Dalkeith Road.

Thomas Nelson had bequeathed £50,000 for “the erection, furnishing, maintenance and management of shelter halls in the poor districts of Edinburgh, to be used as places to which persons of the working class and others, can go and sit and read, write, converse, and otherwise occupy themselves”. McDonald Road was to be the third such building after Fountainbridge (1897) and Stockbridge (1900).

When the library opened on Monday 18 January 1904, the Nelson Hall occupied the largest portion of the building. It consisted of a Lending Library with the capacity to accommodate 20,000 volumes, a reading room, a gymnasium and in the basement a hall for small meetings. When built, the building had two upper flats towards Leith Walk which contained accommodation for the librarian and for the caretaker, entered by a separate stair from Leith Walk.

Books were not directly accessible by the public for browsing until 1922, when Edinburgh’s library service switched to “open access”. At its opening, the library held a stock of 11,498 volumes, issuing more than 190,000 per year in its first few years.

Throughout its 120 years, the library has been very much a part of the community, and the Nelson Hall has hosted musical recitals, exhibitions, author events and much more. In 1986, it hosted a first for Edinburgh Libraries, a massive book sale where you could buy ex-library stock at give-away prices! And in 1989 McDonald Road hosted another first, Scotland’s first Multicultural Fair, which included dance, music, poetry readings and more. It also coincided with the launch of Edinburgh Libraries’ Ethnic Library Service which was geared directly to the needs of the ethnic community both within and outwith the city. Hundreds of books, magazines, records, cassettes and videos were available to speakers of Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Today the library continues to be strongly involved with its community, hosting a weekly programme of events for readers of all ages.