Our Story

The Harris Today

We’re proud guardians of our founders’ intention, inscribed on the outside of The Harris ‘The mental riches you may here acquire abide with you always.’

Edmund Harris’ vision was that the Harris Free Library, Museum, and Art Gallery would be the focal point of culture, the arts, and learning in our city. And today that still stands true.

Why we exist

We’re here to serve as a cultural hub, bringing together communities and promoting creativity and learning through exhibitions events, resources and spaces. 

We celebrate the diversity of Preston and beyond, and make culture accessible to all free of charge.

We’re an inclusive and welcoming environment where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together experience the richness of arts, culture and knowledge, explore new ideas and connect with a community

The History of The Harris

During the second half of the nineteenth century there was a growing Free Library movement and increasing interest in establishing museums and art galleries in Britain. In Preston, the idea of creating a free public library and museum had been championed since the 1850s when members of the community began holding fundraising events.

However, it was not until 1877 that a bequest by the Preston lawyer, Edmund Robert Harris made the idea of a free library, museum and art gallery a reality. Edmund Robert Harris left £300,000 to Preston Corporation in memory of his father, the Reverend Robert Harris, who had been vicar of St George’s Church for 64 years. Some of the money was intended to be used to create a new library, museum and art gallery.

A Free Public Library Committee was formed, and in 1878, Preston Town Council adopted the Public Libraries Act of 1850. The council then purchased the library and collections of the Literary and Philosophical Institution in Cross Street, which had been established in 1810.

In January 1879, Preston’s first public lending library opened in the basement of the Town Hall, while a public museum and reference library containing the Dr Shepherd Collection was established on Cross Street.The success of the libraries and museum encouraged the committee to pursue the erection of a purpose-built library and museum building in the centre of Preston using funds from the Harris Bequest. However, as Edmund Robert Harris’s will stated that no part of the bequest be used to acquire real estate, Preston Corporation had to find land for development.

This required an Act of Parliament and the Preston Improvement Act was passed in 1880, allowing the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of Preston to ‘provide a site for a Public Library and Museum’.  Work started on the new building in 1882 and it was officially opened in 1893.

The Architecture

The Harris Free Library, Museum and Art Gallery was designed by James Hibbert, a local architect and Alderman of Preston.  Hibbert was born in Preston in 1831 and educated at Preston Grammar School.  From 1855 he worked in partnership with Nathan Rainford, in the architectural practice of Hibbert and Rainford.  His early work included Fishergate Baptist Church, built in 1857, and St Saviour’s Church, built in 1866. The building work was undertaken by Cooper and Tullis, a Preston firm which had also been involved the construction of St Walburges Roman Catholic Church.

Hibbert used a Neo-Classical style for the new library, museum and art gallery. For the 1880s, this was somewhat old-fashioned and differed markedly from the Gothic Revival Town Hall designed by George Gilbert Scott.  To prevent a clash of styles, the building was set on the western side of the square, adjacent but not next to the old Town Hall. Work started on the building in 1882.

The design for the building reflects 19th century ideas and attitudes. The Victorians felt that if classical art and architecture were viewed by the public it would have an uplifting and moralising impact. Hibbert chose an imposing neo-classical design as being the most suitable for a library and museum. This is because its chief features were “simplicity, symmetry of plan, truthfulness of expression and refinement of detail”.

The exterior design of the building reflects Hibbert’s vision of a neo-classical museum and art gallery. This style is paralleled in other European public buildings including the British Museum in London and the Konzerthaus in Berlin. The main difference in the design is the decision not to construct a set of front steps directly from the busy Market Square but to have two entrances from either sides of the building.

The main feature of the front of the building is the pediment which houses the sculpture representing The School of Athens which was planned by Hibbert and sculptured by Edwin Roscoe Mullins and a number of griffins guarding the lamp of learning on the apex, which were modelled and carved by Roland Rhodes under the architect’s supervision.

The monumental figure group on the pediment of the building was sculpted by E. Roscoe Mullins. It represents famous figures from the Hellenistic era with Pericles, commander, statesman and orator, at the centre surrounded by distinguished contemporaries such as Sophocles and Socrates. The father of history, Herodtous, reclines on the far left, his books beside him. Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon, is shown with a plan of the Temple. Below the pediment is an inscription adapted by Byron from Pericles funeral oration which reinforces the central role of classical culture in the founding of the building. 

‘The dead but sceptred Sovrans, who still rule Our spirits from their urns’.

Beneath the pediment is the inscription ‘To Literature, Arts and Science’ reflecting the purpose of the building and the interests of its principal benefactor Edmund Robert Harris. Around the sides of the building Hibbert chose to inscribe ‘On Earth there is nothing great but man : in man there is nothing great but mind’, ‘Reverence in man, that which is supreme’ taken from the meditations of Marcus Aurelius and lastly the promise ‘The mental riches you may here acquire abide with you always’. 

A further inscription exists around the lantern in ancient Greek taken from the funeral of Pericles, a ruler of Athens who is the central figure depicted in the pediment sculpture on the front of the building.

The Interior of the Building

The main feature of the interior of the building is the impressive central hall which rises through four storeys to over 120 feet to the lantern tower. Hibbert’s design included not only the fabric of the building but he also devised an overall scheme that comprised the interior decoration and the actual exhibits.

The mosiac floors and columns also reflect classical influences from Ancient Greece and Egypt. As part of the design Hibbert also obtained plaster copies of Classical and Renaissance sculpture to illustrate the “whole range and history of the world’s greatest achievements in art”. 

These started at the top with Assyrian art, then classical Greek sculpture and down to Renaissance art on the ground floor. Only the Greek and Assyrian friezes on the upper floors of the central hall and copy of the Gates of Paradise, Lorenzo Ghiberti (c.1378-1455) from Florence on the ground floor still survive. The friezes are reproductions of the frieze from the palace of King Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud (885 to 860 BC), the frieze and the metopes from the Parthenon in Athens (438-32 BC) and a cast of the frieze of the temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae, Greece (420-400 BC).