‘Why does nobody ever talk about Grimsby central library?” asks Owen Hatherley with an air of mild outrage. “How is it not famous? It’s a fabulous little building, with chandeliers, mosaics, public sculpture, a wonderful double-height reading room. It’s a fantastic place but it’s not listed. It’s never ever mentioned.”
Hatherley stumbled upon the little concrete jewel box, which was built in 1968 by JM Milner for the Grimsby borough architects department, while researching his latest book, a hefty 600-page gazetteer of Modern Buildings in Britain. Entering the classically inspired block of prefabricated concrete panels, under a sculptural honeycomb grid ceiling, he found a world of swirling mosaics and abstract tapestries illuminated by chic 1960s lighting in clustered tubes – a pristine example of “civic design of the highest order” in this neglected northern town.
