It’s the perfect choice.

Cork City Council has announced that it has bought the historic Counting House complex on South Main Street as part of a plan to transform it into the new Cork City Public Library.

The €35m acquisition includes the restored landmark Counting House – part of the former Beamish & Crawford brewery – and a four-storey office complex to the rear.

In a review, the building emerged as the most affordable, lowest risk, and best performing option across all key criteria, including cost, value for money, deliverability, sustainability, and cultural impact.

The new library “will replace the existing Grand Parade library which is undersized, inflexible, and in poor condition, with issues such as accessibility constraints, and poor energy performance.” the city Council said in a statement.

“The modifications needed to accommodate a contemporary library can be done without compromising the history and industrial heritage of the site. The new library will open to the public much sooner than any of the other options considered.

“A modern, expanded library to meet current and future demand has been an objective of Cork City Council for some time. This development represents one of the local authority’s largest single investments in cultural infrastructure in a generation.”

What can we expect?

The Counting House complex extends to just over 83,600 sq ft, more than three times the size of the current City Library, and will be able to cater for the estimated one million visitors expected to visit the library per annum by 2050.

It will feature a new library with capacity to host the existing 500,000-strong catalogue of books, magazines and journals, up to 1,500 events annually and receive around 300,000 enquiries a year; 300 study spaces; a new entrance and concourse; a shop and café space; lecture, performance and exhibition spaces; children’s/teen/and young adult sections; an expanded Cork Local Studies section; and an expanded Rory Gallagher music library.