On 11 April 2003, the Ussher Library (technically, the James Ussher Library & Glucksman Conservation Department) was opened by the then President, Mary McAleese. Like the Berkeley, it had been the subject of an international competition, launched in 1997. Construction had begun in 1999.
The reason we mention this is that the Ussher doesn’t have its own entrance. Instead, the Berkeley’s foyer and its Iveagh Hall act as the conduit to Trinity’s latest and largest library. And to do that, the Berkeley had to be substantially reconfigured on the ground floor and basement levels. In fact the Ussher was open for business for the bones of a year before its official launch. A secondary entrance, via the Arts Building and Lecky, enabled the Berkeley to be off limits after the Ussher was finished.
Today, we’ll focus on the area at the front of the Berkeley. The foyer, Iveagh Hall and staff areas on the ground floor were completely gutted in the ’02 refurb. For those of us who have only known the modern integrated BLU complex, it’s almost impossible to visualise how cluttered the Iveagh Hall was. There are almost no images of it; those we do have will be featured over the next while.
For the moment, this may help – click to see a larger version:
To set the scene, imagine you’ll just entered the Library. To your immediate left are some steps, leading through to the public WCs. However, it’s a different call you want to place, not a call of nature. And for that, the following is needed:
My understanding is those steps were handy places to sit. They are gone now – leaving their mark against the wall, however:
We do have some info on those other facilities, by the way. We have the following tale from a medical student who “came up” to Trinity in 1971:
I never really used the Berkeley – we had to shiver in two portacabins in the space beside it, to the right. I think that was behind the old library [Ed – yes, we’ll get to them later…]
But we did use the loos – lovely new ones, much more attractive than some older ones we had to put up with – and my main memory of my first ever time in the “Berkeley Ladies”, is of the graffiti over the toilet paper- “General Studies degrees, help yourself!”
I don’t think you can do General Studies anymore, so maybe it’s OK to use this joke….
Madeline Stringer (MB. BCh. BAO).
When said facilities were upgraded to their current stainless steel state in the refurb, the possibility to leave lasting graffiti was severely curtailed. Current students might recognise the motto “Arts degrees, help yourself” as the modern equivalent of what Madeline describes. Moving on…
Also to the left of the foyer were purely staff areas – toilets, the tea room, kitchen etc. During the remodel, the toilets were turned into what is now known as the Librarian’s Office. The office currently occupied by the Librarian was the tea room.
Here we see the staff restrooms being remodelled with prejudice in May 2002:
Main image: Eugene Kelly, 1972.