The John Rylands Library

Who we are

The John Rylands Library is housed in a magnificent Victorian Gothic building, located on Deansgate in Manchester city centre. The Library contains one of the world's finest collections of rare books, manuscripts and archives. The collections are from many different time periods, cover a wide range of subjects and include items in more than fifty languages. The Library was built in the 1890s by Enriqueta Rylands as a memorial to her late husband, John Rylands. John was one of the most successful

What we do

Our education team offer a range of free workshops and guided tours for KS2, secondary and post-16 groups. Popular sessions include creative writing, bookmaking and using historic maps to investigate Manchester’s past.