Chetham's Library

Nice library.Nice and friendly tour guide.Interesting story and history about the building.Poor arrangement of gathering visitors.Visitors have to wait in the rain.*Bring your own umbrella**Prior reservation required for a tour*

What a beautiful gem in Manchester! Today we visited this wonderful place and were given a great tour by Brian and Marjorie. They were very knowledgeable and patiently answered all our questions. The tour and admission is free of charge however a donation of £3 is recommended.As you enter the building, you enter a different world, and you go back in time to the 1600s. The books are incredibly well-preserved and it was fascinating to find out that Chetham's is also a place where talented pupils who aspire to be musicians take classes here and live here as well. It's just like a boarding school/university.Moreover, people can access the library and borrow books free of charge.I cannot recommend highly enough! Will certainly return for another visit!

Went to the guided tour of Chethams Library. I don't remember the name of our tour guide but she was very knowledgeable and we really enjoyed seeing the oldest public library. The architecture, books, and furniture are simply beautiful to behold. Definitely worth going.We arrived 10 mins early and waited outside the gate, the security guide was really polite when I asked if I was in the right place. The only thing I would recommend is updating the tickets to say wait outside the main gate rather than the gatehouse and that the tour guide will pick you up from there since a few other people seemed to be confused.

Please note that advanced booking is required and the website of the library explains it well.Our experience here was far from impressive though. We wanted to visit the library at 1pm on Tue, 16 May, but did not realise that advanced booking was required. So we went to the gate of the library and there was someone (say P for person) at the lodge next to the Cathedral garden.We: Hello, we’d like to visit the library please.P: You need to book it online.We: Oh, okay, thank you.Then we opened a mobile phone to find out the information. However, he came out of the lodge and said the following in an upset tone.P: I said(!) you needed to book it online! Also, you are not allowed to take pictures with children in it!He then banged the door of the lodge and we were rather puzzled - (i) we did not and still do not know why he suddenly got so upset (ii) we understood what he said in the first place and so were trying to browse the web to find the online booking form. Having lived in the UK for the last 20+ years, I have never seen a person that upset/rude.It is understandable that he may have thought that we were trying to take pictures and he wanted to stop it, but it was not necessary to yell at us especially when he did not know what we were trying to do.After all, our experience here was not pleasant at all and, despite the excitement to see this classic-looking library, we decided to just leave. Reflecting back, I could not erase an impression of racism where I expected to experience it the least - schoolyard.p.s. The pictures attached were taken outside the opening hours and I hope it does not break the rules - if so, please let me know and I would be more than happy to unload them.

Excellent tour guide, just the right amount of time and an amazing building and library. Highly recommend a visit.

Phenomenal tour by Sian-Louise, best I've been on - so much to learn about this wonder of Manchester! Ethos is to put the resources into the community, because knowledge is power and all should have access to that. So much respect for the team, whose profit goes towards upkeep and accessibility (some of those works are just too impractically formatted - would need a crane to get home) and adding to the collection of over 250,000 to keep the reading relevant and follow their ethos through. Serving the community! This is the oldest operating public library in the English-speaking world and you can smell it: beyond divine; my nose loved every second. Greatly, greatly recommend.

Had the pleasure of taking part in the After Hour's Event"

Loved the guided tour around this beautiful historical library. The guide gave us an amazing insight into the history of the area, the Cathedral and of course the Library within the Music College.An absolute must for tourists but equally also for Manchester residents just to be aware and proud of this heritage.

A fascinating tour of Chethams Library just yards away from Manchester Victoria train station. 350 years of history built in 1421 to accommodate priests living at Manchester's Collegiate Church.Worth having a tour as you hear fascinating stories about Dr Dee and can view the chained books and sit where Carl Marx and Fredrich Engles sat, debated and studied together. You can also see medieval cat flaps which were put in when they introduced cat's to hopefully kill the rat's.

Great tour guide. Amazing history. Would like to go more in depth. Definitely hitting the high notes across several centuries.