Portico

1942

The portico was added to the Library as part of the late 1930s extensions to the original Mitchell Library, made to house the Public Library which until then had been in a separate building across the road on the corner of Bent Street. The portico continued to serve as the main entry until the new Macquarie Street building opened in 1988. Built in Maroubra sandstone in the Classical style, it features eight Ionic columns, three bronze doors and a stone inscription. The steps are made of the fine-grained volcanic rock trachyte.

The design of the portico was fiercely debated, with the librarian and government architect clashing repeatedly. The principal librarian William Ifould described the original proposal as a ‘classical entrance porch grafted on to the existing Renaissance design’, while the Library trustees described their ideal library building as ‘free from showy decoration or artistic ornamentation’, which, they argued would ‘naturally attract sight-seers and disturb the quiet and decorum of workers and students’.* Under Ifould’s close supervision, the design was pared back and a number of the original decorative stone elements on the exterior of the Mitchell Wing, such as elaborate stone hoods which framed each window, were also removed.

The view from the portico stairs looks across Shakespeare Place to the Botanic Gardens. The statue of William Shakespeare is by the renowned Australian sculptor Sir Bertram Mackennal.