Cape Town Central Library

The Cape Town Central Library fills the Old Drill Hall in the heart of the city. It belongs to a municipal network of 104 branches. Inside you find lending and reference desks, more than ninety computers and free Wi-Fi for members. The shelves carry books in all eleven official languages of South Africa plus foreign titles, a range no other library here matches.

The roots of public libraries here go back to 1818, when the South African Public Library opened its doors. It began as a free library, became a subscription one in 1829, and ran that way for over a century. In 1954 the city's library service, founded in 1952, took over that collection, and the Central Library opened. It started in the Waalburg, moved to City Hall in 1982, and settled in the Old Drill Hall in 2008. Apartheid reserved libraries for specific racial groups, and this one kept adapting as its community changed.

Two departments inside the building deserve a closer look. The art library, established in 1965, is one of only two public art libraries in South Africa. Its holdings cover arts and crafts with a strong focus on African and South African art, photography, fashion and graphic design. Students, local craftsmen and artists rely on it. The Performing Arts & Music Library began in the Long Street Library in 1956. Sheet music, the Evelyn Fincken Collection and material from the Cape Guild of Organists fill its shelves. It was the first library in the country to issue gramophone records to the public.