Sep 7, 2026 · 41 min · 12 segments
On this episode, we step inside The Portico Library in Manchester with Thom Keep and Carol Ann Whitehead to explore how a £11 million transformation is reimagining a 220-year-old institution for the…
Carol Ann WhiteheadGuest
Thom KeepGuest
Simone RocheHost
How did you end up in this sector, Tom? And if you could sum the Portico project up in one
So before being at the Portico, I used to lecture in American history at Durham University and Sheffield University.
And then I realised quite quickly that my, whatever I was working on would be probably read by about three people.
in the entire world and that actually trying to bring history to life in different ways would be more fun.
So I was looking for a space where you could do that and I came across the Portico when I moved to Manchester and it's an amazing space because we do exhibitions, we do events, workshops, we work with schools, universities, with artists.
It's an amazing creative space where we're always using the library's collection, the archive, its heritage to sort of tell amazing and important stories.
And it's through the success of that that we build up this following of people that want to see more of that and telling Manchester's histories, global histories, that the National Lottery Heritage Fund have seen that it's really important to people and they want to see more of it.
And so we've gone down that route with them and that's how we've ended up with this ginormous £11 million capital project.
And what will be the happy ending for you in this story? See what I did there? Library operations.
Well, I think what a success would look like is that everybody can walk through the front entrance.
um at the library so it was it was built in 1806 it's on three floors it's um sort of neoclassical design greek column frontage and then at the moment it's four steps to get in to that to the actual building we want everyone to be able to access through those front columns um regardless of how they access it so and have a lift that connects all the three floors together for the first time so that's what i'd like to see
Sorry, can I just say as well, connection with Liverpool, is that the architect was doing some work in Liverpool and some of the members basically asked him to, they liked the work that he was doing in Liverpool.
Can you replicate that or create something in Manchester with that same neoclassical look with the columns? There's a little connection with Liverpool.
How did you end up in this sector, Tom? And if you could sum the Portico project up in one
So before being at the Portico, I used to lecture in American history at Durham University and Sheffield University.
And then I realised quite quickly that my, whatever I was working on would be probably read by about three people.
in the entire world and that actually trying to bring history to life in different ways would be more fun.
So I was looking for a space where you could do that and I came across the Portico when I moved to Manchester and it's an amazing space because we do exhibitions, we do events, workshops, we work with schools, universities, with artists.
It's an amazing creative space where we're always using the library's collection, the archive, its heritage to sort of tell amazing and important stories.
And it's through the success of that that we build up this following of people that want to see more of that and telling Manchester's histories, global histories, that the National Lottery Heritage Fund have seen that it's really important to people and they want to see more of it.
And so we've gone down that route with them and that's how we've ended up with this ginormous £11 million capital project.
And what will be the happy ending for you in this story? See what I did there? Library operations.
Well, I think what a success would look like is that everybody can walk through the front entrance.
um at the library so it was it was built in 1806 it's on three floors it's um sort of neoclassical design greek column frontage and then at the moment it's four steps to get in to that to the actual building we want everyone to be able to access through those front columns um regardless of how they access it so and have a lift that connects all the three floors together for the first time so that's what i'd like to see
Sorry, can I just say as well, connection with Liverpool, is that the architect was doing some work in Liverpool and some of the members basically asked him to, they liked the work that he was doing in Liverpool.
Can you replicate that or create something in Manchester with that same neoclassical look with the columns? There's a little connection with Liverpool.
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