Inside the newly reopened Johannesburg City Library

After years of civil society fighting the good fight, the Johannesburg City Library reopened to the public after a five-year closure on 9 August, two days after its 90th birthday. 

The building, known for its Italian-style architecture, is one of the city’s most treasured landmarks, according to the Johannesburg Development Agency, which completed the renovations.

The current library building in Market Square was completed in 1935, but the Johannesburg City Library has been open to the public since 1890 in various locations, beginning in a corrugated iron structure on Kerk Street.

By the 1960s, the library ran out of space, and so the gardens in front of it were excavated to extend underground storage, with the capacity to store 750,000 books, which has since expanded to boast over 1.5 million books.

The original owners of the library ceded it to the Johannesburg town council in 1923 and it became a free lending library.

In 1974, it became the first public library in South Africa to welcome people of all races. 

The library was closed to the public in 2009 for extensive modernisation work. It reopened in February of 2012 after the City of Johannesburg spent R55 million on the project, which was also funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which sponsored $2 million.

Following this, however, the library suddenly closed to the public again in 2020 and has remained so until now. 

The fight to reopen the heritage site

The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation criticised the city for leaving the closure “largely unexplained” to the public.

“The closure was ostensibly due to its non-compliance with fire regulations,” Flo Bird, member of the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation, explained to Newsday.

“Rectifying this required larger budgets, and budgeting is done annually, so just getting the funds voted takes time going through committees,” she said. 

A lack of action from authorities prompted the Heritage Foundation to launch protest action to advocate for the reopening of the library. 

“We believe that we have reached a more sustainable and satisfactory result than if the city had gone it alone,” the foundation said. 

Bird said that the most obvious major refurbishments include that the Harold Strange African Studies Library has been expanded, and all the parquet and cork flooring in the building has been repaired and polished. 

In terms of the building’s fire risks, the building’s original heritage doors were deemed unsuitable for fire emergencies. To rectify this, fire doors have been added to each section of the library.

The original doors remain, but are now kept open for safety reasons. Additionally, the building was required to install additional water tanks. 

“This is necessary because water pressure in the city centre is too low to be used for over two storeys in height. The library is four storeys high,” Bird said. 

The Johannesburg Development Agency said that work was also undertaken on structural repairs and heritage restoration, and upgrading electrical, IT, and security systems.

The building now has modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems as well as enhanced accessibility features for people with disabilities. 

Reading rooms, study spaces, and archival storage areas have also been refurbished and upgraded. 

The library consists of a central reference section, a children’s section, an art library, a multimedia library, a music library, a newspaper reading room, and a young adults section. 

It contains rare books, archival photographs, and historical maps. Some of these documents cannot be found anywhere else in the world. 

The library’s rare and expansive collection makes these upgrades crucial. Fire safety, structural repairs, and leak prevention are essential to protect its materials.

Throughout the closure, however, Bird said that to the knowledge of the Heritage Foundation, none of the books or documents were damaged. 

“For much of the closure, there were still a few librarians inside, as well as security and cleaning staff. The librarians offered online assistance to researchers,” she said. 

“Knowing there were librarians inside certainly made me much happier!” 

Staff are currently in the process of digitising hard copies of its rare archival material to safeguard it from future risks. This process, however, will take several years to complete. 

“The euphoria of reopening”

“The euphoria of the reopening of the Johannesburg City Library should not detract from accountability for the cost incurred in the renovations and repairs, and to ensure that the money is spent in line with the market value cost,” the Heritage Foundation said.

In an interview with ENCA, Johannesburg Director of Libraries and Information Services Nobuntu Mpendulo said the new renovations cost over R30 million to complete.

The library is open to all residents. To join, visitors are required to present their ID and proof of residence. Children are also required to show their birth certificates. 

The Heritage Foundation is advocating for the library to remain open on Saturdays. Currently, it is open from Monday to Friday, from 09h00 to 17h00.

Newsday recently visited the reopened library to document the restoration. The building has now been fenced off, and the remnants of recent construction efforts are still present despite the clean, well-kept exterior.

The entrance to the library, with its marble pillars and stained-glass windows, shows evidence of careful historical restoration work, maintaining the original building’s character.

Two new blue plaques, a heritage site symbol, decorate the marble walls: One for the library itself and one to celebrate the work of Johannesburg City Librarian from 1960 to 1975, Anna Hester Smith.

The library is clean and organised. The refurbishment shows a commitment to keeping historic elements of the library’s furniture, including its original index system and antique printing-press machines.

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Images of the Johannesburg City Library, following its reopening