Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society, Westgate Road
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Description
"John Green designed this building for the 'Lit & Phil', incorporating a private library and society rooms, in 1822 in the Greek Revival style that was the fashion of the time. During the 19th century the library was the centre for learning in Newcastle. The town's scientists, engineers, industrialists and others met there. George Stephenson showed his newly invented miners' safety lamp in 1817. In 1844 William George Armstrong first spoke on electricity and Joseph William Swan demonstrated the first incandescent electric light in 1880. Past presidents include Robert Stephenson, Lord Armstrong and Sir Charles Parsons. In 1893 the building was almost destroyed by fire and was reconstructed by F W Rich. It is the largest independent library outside London with a collection of over 160,000 books. Tyne and Wear HER (8977): Newcastle, Westgate Road, Literary and Philosophical Society http://www.twsitelines.info http://www.litandphil.org.uk" Photo by Andrew Curtis, 2010. -
Owner
Andrew Curtis -
Source
Geograph (Geograph) -
License
What does this mean? Creative Commons License
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Further information
Link: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1736286
Resource type: Image
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 2 years, 10 months ago
Viewed: 285 times
Picture Taken: 2010-03-02 -
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