The JR Clynes Building
Oldham’s original library, museum and art gallery opened in 1883. Today the building has been restored to include the Council Chamber and Mayor’s Dining Room, public exhibition spaces and a new home for Oldham Theatre Workshop.
On this page you can find out about more about the original building and the restoration work that took place in 2024/25.
Barrel vaulted ceilings
On the ground floor the exposed ceilings show the shuttered concrete that was used to form the internal skin, walls and floors within the building. The concrete was cast directly onto sawn softwood shuttering boards which left their imprint in the concrete.
The concrete itself is a very low fines mix that incorporates crushed bricks possibly from adjacent demolished buildings. Unlike modern concrete work it is totally un-reinforced with steel. In 1883 the use of concrete, although well established for fire-proof floor construction, was very rarely used for wall construction where brickwork was far more typical. In part this was due to a lack of standardisation in the strength of cement products and a lack of experienced structural engineers who could work with these materials. The Old Library is one of the earliest examples of an ashlar faced, in-situ formed concrete multi story building.
heritage project management
This material was a challenge for the project team restoring the building. As the concrete is unreinforced it is relatively weak under tension and great care was required during the structural alterations to ensure that the concrete was always in compression whilst forming new openings or removing redundant parts of the original building.
Hidden in the walls
The Old Library was built in 1883 and extended in 1894. The original south wall was constructed of two brickwork skins with a cavity. These walls are connected using large iron ties which was ahead of its time in the 1800s and did not become standard until much later.
This construction method was a challenge for the project team restoring the building. The spacing of the ironwork ties did not meet current requirements therefore new ties were installed between the two brickwork skins to ensure that changes to the basement layout of the building could be safely accommodated by this wall construction.