The Central Public library first opened in 1893 on the corner of Mercer and Wakefield Streets, Designed by William Crichton a prominent architect in his time. The building was demolished in 1945 due to "earthquake concerns", although this is disputable. The site was later occupied by the City Council Municipal buildings that are still in use today. The Wellington City Council archives holds the original plans and correspondence for this building. It seems there was concern over the foundations when it was originally built. In 1937 a new library opened on a block between Mercer and Harris street. The building was subsequently converted into the City Gallery Wellington. In 1991 the new central branch library opened on Victoria and Mercer Streets along the edge of the Civic Square. Ian Athfield of Athfield Architects had designed the new building, which Fletcher Development and Construction built. The library building consists of three main floors. The ground floor contains fiction, the Sound and Vision centre, the Young Adult and Children's collections and the main circulation desks. The first floor houses the sciences, humanities, arts, music and literature collections. The travel, history and New Zealand reference collections are located on the second floor. Two floors above the Library have until recently been leased by the Department of Conservation. A basement level serves for vehicle parking and day-to-day circulation duties. The high-level portico bridge linking the library building to the WCCservice centre building was demolished in 2013 as an earthquake risk.
A decision was made by the Wellington City Council to close the Central Library on the Tuesday 19 March 2019, 8:30pm, after receiving advice from engineers that the building has structural vulnerabilities which mean it may not perform well in the event of a significant earthquake. Two pop-up replacement libraries have opened in central Wellington, Arapaki Manners Library, and the He Matapihi Molesworth Library. Neither of the two has the reading rooms or the opening hours of the Central Library, however. A third library is planned for central Wellington, the Brandon Street Library, and is expected to open in early 2020. A new collection and distribution centre to house Wellington Central Library's collection of 400,000 items will be located in Johnsonville and is expected to become fully operational some time in 2020.
Branches
Wellington City Libraries has 13 branches open to the public:
The third new central city library to replace the Wellington Central Library is planned to go into the Harbour City Centre on Brandon Street. It is expected to open in May 2020.
