Manchester Central Library
**Please note this cache is only available during library opening hours, currently Monday to Thursday 9am-8pm, Friday and Saturday 9am-5pm and closed Sundays**
Manchester's Grade II* Listed Central Library was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the building, a columned portico attached to a rotunda domed structure, is loosely derived from the Pantheon, Rome. At its opening, one critic wrote, "This is the sort of thing which persuades one to believe in the perennial applicability of the Classical canon".
We're going to take you on a short tour of the building to show you round and lead you to your prize.
Take care to note the answers to the questions as you go round. You'll need them to find the cache.
First, use your GPS device to navigate to the start point at Waypoint 1 (virtual stage). Here you'll find some large bright red objects, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.
Q1: How many are there. Answer = A
Now head to the main library columned portico entrance, As you enter the building look at the ceiling above. You'll see, in between two rows of smaller decorative circular designs, a number of red and gold shields.
Q2: How many shields? Answer = B
Use the stairs or the lift to the right to reach the next floor. Turn around and take a moment to admire the beautiful stained glass window beneath the ceiling at Q2, designed by Robert Anning Bell. It commemorates a famous English playwright.
Q3: How many letters in the playwright's name? Answer = C
Turn about 180° and enter the Wolfson Reading Room. Shhh!!!
Q4: What is the principal thing? How many letters in the word? Answer = D
Leave the Wolfson Reading Room by the same door you entered. Turn right and follow the corridor into and through the Henry Watson Music Library. Just before you exit back onto the main corridor look up at the decoratively carved and painted panels.
Q5: How many Crowns are depicted in the central panel? Answer = E
Take the lift or stairs to the fourth floor. Turn left and pass the staffed desk. You will find the cache at:
A+1 B-2 C-9 . D E+3
The cache is large enough to hold small trackable items.
Inside the cache is a genuine Manchester Central Library book stamp, used in the days when they actually used to stamp books. Please leave it in situ.
Please respect other library users.