This Saturday, we invite you to join a free Peterloo walking tour beginning at The Portico... The event is inspired by research carried out by Manchester's Global Threads team, supporting the Portico Reunited project, which helps reposition Peterloo in its global context as a Transatlantic Moment.

⚓️ That's right, we're still obsessing over The Odyssey (we were doing it before it was cool, too), so we're hosting another Slow Reading Club inspired by the epic...

🗓️ Running until Saturday 3rd October and free to visit during our regular opening hours!

Everything and Nothing explores all the magical things that have come together throughout the years to create The Portico we know and love today...

💫 Have you had the chance to visit our latest exhibition yet?

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: We’ve just performed emergency surgery on a book suffering from an acute episode of stapled rebinding...

☀️ Heading into town through the summer holidays? We've got plenty to keep readers of all ages entertained!..

♟️ This September, join us for a relaxing evening of chess under the ambience of the Portico Georgian dome, with a soundtrack of bebop jazz from DJ Jasper Cheng...

🌙 Join us for Relaxed Lates at The Portico... Running every Thursday from 23rd July - 27 August, these after-hours events offer the unique opportunity to explore The Portico and our collection outside of our regular opening hours...

🫖 We had a fabulous time hosting our latest Literary Afternoon Tea on Saturday! Thank you again to our incredible kitchen team, who, as always, put on a splendid spread, and to our wonderful guests who made it such a joyful afternoon!

✍️ We're delighted to have teamed up with the @royalliteraryfund.bsky.social for a special event dedicated to championing the art of writing and publishing...

🏛️ Who needs the film when you can search for Ithaca among the books in the Portico collection? Next Wednesday, take a tour of translations of the Odyssey, from Chapman to Emily Wilson, and discover how the Victorians actually discovered Bronze Age Greece in excavation and text...

🎊 A massive congratulations to Marta and Arthur, who tied the knot at The Portico over the weekend!

💕 Closed for a wedding... We apologise for any inconvenience, but the Portico will be closed tomorrow as we have the pleasure of hosting a wedding! Curious about holding your big day at The Portico? Find out more here: www.theportico.org.uk/weddings 📸 Cassandra Lane

🪉 Imaginary Landscapes... Coming to The Portico later this month, Imaginary Landscapes unites the spellbinding poetry of Chris Tutton with the semi-improvised harp brilliance of international award/winning harpist, Lucy Nolan...

🫖 Join the Portico Kitchen team on Saturday 11th July for a literary afternoon tea celebrating Rebecca, Daphne du Marier's gothic classic of love, loss and betrayal...

🙌 The brilliant Susana Sánchez-González has published a fascinating new article, The Ordinary Numinosity of the Book...

The tour includes a history of the Library from its opening in 1806, its context within Manchester, and access to historic books from the collection. Tours will be priced at £6pp, with a minimum of 8 people (or £48). Maximum bookings are 25 people. Groups above 12 will be divided into two.

🔎 Tours at The Portico... We're delighted to announce that group tours of the library are now available to book, taking place on Wednesdays from mid-September...

🏳️‍🌈 This Saturday, we invite you to a special Pride-themed instalment of our Mysterious Book of the Month. The relaxed event will offer the rare chance to explore, hold, and dive a little deeper into a selection of mysterious books chosen from our 25,000-strong historic collection...

We also have a gorgeous illustration of The Arch of the Sergii, located in Croatia, taken from architect Thomas Allason's Picturesque views of the antiquities of Pola, in Istria.

⚽️ Inspired by all the excitement surrounding England's first World Cup game against Croatia this evening, we've been digging through our archives... First up, a couple of brilliant images from The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes...not sure why 'The Dribling Game' didn't quite catch on...

📖 Why join The Portico? Portico members enjoy many fantastic benefits, ranging from access to our collection of more than 25,000 Georgian and Victorian books, to use of our stunning reading room. 🔗 You can find out more about all of our membership packages here: www.theportico.org.uk/membership

🛸 Next Tuesday, join Dr Amanda Potter from the Open University for a special screening of the Doctor Who episodes ‘Silence in the Library’ and ‘Forest of the Dead’ from 2008, followed by a discussion of libraries of the past, and what the library of the future could be like...

🎙️The Portico's Creative Producer Debbie will be on the radio this morning! She'll be joining Phil Trow and a group of librarians on BBC Manchester for a quiz as part of this year'sFestival of Libraries! 🔗 Tune in between 11.15am-12pm: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

🙌 As #nationvolunteerweek continues, we wanted to give a special mention to our incredible Vice Chair of Trustees and Portico Reunited Co-Led, Karen Chancellor, who has played a crucial role in helping to shape the future of the library...

💭 This Thursday, we're delighted to be hosting a night of poetry and contemporary storytelling inspired by the mythic figure of Cressida...

This week marks National #volunteersweek - our incredible team of volunteers are at the heart of everything that goes on across the library, whether it's events, hosting or book restoration, without them, The Portico simply would not be the magical place it is without them.

✨ Celebrating The Portico's amazing volunteers!...

✨ We had the pleasure of welcoming @lucympowell.bsky.social to The Portico last week... Our team gave Lucy a tour of the library, explored some of the works from our historic collection and chatted about Portico Reunited...