• In August 1905, the Highways and General Purposes Committee was given power to fit up and complete the building and make arrangements for the opening.
• On 4th December 1905 October, the building opened as the first purpose built public library.
• On 29th May 1906, Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist, consented to formerly open the Library and gave it the City. He was made that day Freeman of the City, the first to be honoured.
• In 1909 iron railings and shrubbery improved the external appearance of the building.
• In 1911, the lecture hall was furnished for a Dickens Centenary Lecture held on 7th February 1912.
• In 1912 the lecture hall was available for public use.
• In November 1926, the new Reference room was opened.
• In 1949 the Children’s Library was opened. The original domed reading room was divided into 2 and had a separate entrance from the library foyer.
• In the 1990”s the Old Public Library was closed down when the current Central Library was built. There was talk of having a walkway between the two to retain the charm of the old building but this was never done.
• The Old Public Library is now a restaurant.

Architecture:

The Library had all its departments on the ground floor. Large glass panelled doors on the left lead to the large reading room (later the Children's library). This extended underneath the glass dome and up to a large round south-facing window.

To the north was the Reference Library underneath a large round window, a Lending Library (adult and juvenile), the Librarians Office and a Committee Room and a staircase that lead to the lecture room above.

On the right of the entrance was the Children's Reading Room. The Children's reading room was closed soon after it opened and then reopened in 1908 as the Local History Room.

In the entrance stood a skeleton clock, a clock with the workings in a display case and the face on the outside of the building. The fittings were all polished mahogany, and the indicators and lending counter faced the entrance.

The first floor consisted of the lecture hall (later the Reference Library).

Social history:

• The closest thing to a library in Peterborough was set by The Gentleman’s Society (1730 - 1762) but this was mainly used as a dining club. Until 1898, the collection of books was housed in a porch of St John’s Church in Cathedral Square.
• In 1884, Dr Walker, leader of the Gilchrist Lectures on Science for the working man (joint committee of the Natural History Society and Mechanics’ Institute) raised £321 from public subscription. He then persuaded the Council that a library could be established without an increase in the rates.
• In 1892 Dr Walker and his team were active in the formation of the Public Library.
• In April 1893, the Council established the first proper public library in the Fitzwilliam Hall, Park Road and the first librarian was Stanley Jastrzebski.
• The old Public library was the first purpose built library after the Fitzwilliam Hall became too small.
• In 1902 George Keeble wrote privately to Andrew Carnegie asking for donations towards establishing branch libraries. Carnegie refused.
• George Keeble suggested a new library and Carnegie paid the building cost of £6,000 providing the Council gave the site to the people and also paid off any debt-charges occurred on the Park Road Library. On 25th August 1903, the Mayor announced this to the Council.
• Between September 1903 and March 1904, the Council, the Highways & General Purposes Committee and the Library Committee chose a triangular site, which was formerly part of the Cattle Market. One year earlier the Council had begun building the Technical School on the southern half on the site, and a gap was left between the two buildings for a proposed extension of Geneva Street.
• In April 1904, an architectural competition was held to find a designer for the new Library, with Leonard Stokes (architect of All Soul’s Church, Park Road) agreed to be the assessor.
• During the blackouts of the war between 1914 and 1918, the local Red Cross Committee and the H.M Government used it as a demobilisation centre and the Deacons School used the lecture hall.
• The Town Clerk had received 111 parcels of designs containing 285 alternative plans.
• No: 3 was the winning design by Hall & Philips, 6 Great James Street, Bedford Row, London.
• The tenders were awarded in October and John Cracknell won the contract at £4,791 (eventually to the cost of £5,174).
• On the day of the opening it rained heavily and the 150 citizens complained that there were no stands for their umbrellas!
• There was a collection of 12,193 books – 7,912 were in the Lending Library and 4,281 in the Reference Library.
• In 1918 the Representation of the People Act significantly increased the number of votes, which meant that the more people could use the library without a guarantor.
• In 1919 the Public Libraries Act removed the limit of rate support for libraries allowing the Library Committee to increase the librarian's salary.
• The 3 staff members – one senior assistant and 2 junior assistants increased in 1921 to 3 juniors.
• The Victorian Library Society ran it.
• Mr Carnegie, a Scotsman made his fortune in British Steel and was at the time believed to have been the wealthiest man on the earth. He funded and gave over 1600 libraries in several British towns and cities. He was born a weaver’s son in Dumfriesshire and grew up in America.
• On the day of the ceremony, Carnegie went first to the Guildhall to receive the Freedom of the City (the first Freeman). He then joined a formal procession to Library and was given a tour of the Library. The Chairman of the Libraries Committee unveiled a memorial plaque in the entrance. He then ate a formal luncheon in the lecture hall and made a public speech from a speaker’s platform outside the front of the Library.
• In March 1924, the librarian, Wilcock, died in office and Oswald Caldcleugh Hudson succeeded.
• In 1926, Hudson proposed changes to the library when the Governors of the Deacon school wanted to end their tenancy of the Lecture Hall. He proposed that the Lecture Hall become the Reference Library and the existing Reference Library be transformed into the Children’s Library.
• In 1942 the reference library was reverted back to the tenancy of Deacons School.
• In 1949 the Children’s Library was completely re-stocked with 3,000 new books.
• In 1949 the total stock of books amounted to 65,000 books.
• On December 12, 1990, the Duke of Gloucester officially opened the current main library a few yards from the Old Public Library.