The building is situated at the north-west corner of Market Square. The site is an important one as it was in 1835 that Sir Benjamin D’Urban, then Governor of theCape, granted the land for the construction of a library and commercial hall.
By 1848 the Commercial Hall was completed and the new Library and Reading Room occupied a room here but they then had to move to temporary premises to make way for a Court House from 1856 to 1861, at which date the Library moved into the new Town Hall. In 1861 Prince Alfred presented the library with a set of books. The present library building, designed by Henry Cheers of Twickenham, England, in a mixed Classical/Jacobean Revival style, was opened in 1902 and is regarded as an excellent example of late Victorian public architecture. The terracotta façade was manufactured in England and sent out in numbered pieces and assembled in Port Elizabeth (NM 1973). The building was extensively restored in 1989-90.
Location: 10 Govan Mbeki St, Central, Gqeberha, 6001, South Africa
