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The gateway to learning

Despite satellite TV and the Internet, despite the fact that fewer and fewer people bother to read anything at all, this splendid institution somehow survives - indeed thrives, in these unbookish times.

It is not exactly cheap to be a member. Yet around 200 people subscribe - at a cost of between £98 and £147 a year - to enjoy the benefits of being part of one of the city's most hallowed organisations.There is no "code" for members. Absolutely anyone can join.

In the reading room, there are thousands of tomes -they are largely 19th century in vintage, but the range is far wider than that.

There are books on business practice, household management for servants, history, and lots of rare novels which have been out of print for decades.

There is also a section on north west fiction featuring authors like Harrison Ainsworth (The Lancashire Witches), Howard Spring (Shabby Tiger) and Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange). Travel and biography are speciality subjects, and academics from all over the world come here to study them. Research is often serious, and the Portico has a rather intellectual reputation.

However, according to librarian Emma Marigliano, the range is far from being elitist - and surprisingly populist in nature. She says: "Our readers love Joan and Jackie Collins as much as the highbrow stuff. We are not at all dry and stuffy; our academics love an escape as much as anybody else, which is when the Ruth Rendells and P D James novels come into their own.

"We have a wonderful library collection, and it is cheaper than joining a gym and, in my view, very good value for money."

Emma adds that the modern literary works of the less elevated variety are eventually given to charity shops or other libraries.

Posterity

Those of more academic substance are kept for posterity - there are currently about 25,000 volumes, and the collection is growing all the time.

One of the Portico's strengths is its diverse appeal. It also succeeds as a really great place to socialise and meet other people. The gallery area is open to the public, and there are regular exhibitions here. Many of them are book-related.

At the moment, artist Mary Tang is exhibiting her skills in Chinese calligraphy, as well as the highly unusual art of origami jewellery. Such showcases are open to the public from 9.30am to 4.30pm, and admission is absolutely free.

If you are a member, you can also enjoy a decent lunch here. In the evening, the place is available for private functions.

It even manages to support a literary prize for north west authors of renown - awarded every two years at a VIP dinner. Past winners include former police chief John Stalker and Bill Naughton, who wrote Alfie and Spring And Port Wine.

One of Mosley Street's most impressive buildings, the Portico Library was completed in 1806 and designed in the classical Greek style by renowned architect Thomas Harrison, who had earlier designed Liverpool's Lyceum.

It originally comprised a library and a newsroom and could be entered via the Ionic columns which still stand at the front of the building, which was constructed in Runcorn stone. But in the 1920s the ground floor was sold off to a bank, and 60-odd years later, the cavernous space downstairs was converted into a pub, catering for the thousands of office workers who earn a crust nearby.

On the upper floor, however, the library still magnificently survives. The reading room is a lovely space with a glass dome and an original wind dial - by the still surviving Thwaites of London, who were later to make the clock for Big Ben at Westminster.

The first secretary was Peter Mark Roget, who started to compile his famous Thesaurus here. Other early members included John Edward Taylor, founder of the Manchester Guardian, and the scientist John Dalton, most famed for his pioneering theories on the splitting of the atom: he dubbed it "the most elegant site in town".

Another luminary was the Rev. William Gaskell, chairman of the library and husband of 19th century novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell, with whom he shared a home in Plymouth Grove - and Manchester's famous Liberal MP, Richard Cobden, and Bury's famous son, prime minister Sir Robert Peel, were readers in their time.

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