Alan Clawley describes the farewell to a city landmark.

On the last day of January 2015 the Friends of the Central Library gathered on the steps of the doomed Central Library to celebrate its short life.

The words GOODBYE TO A GREAT BUILDING were hooked on the netting conveniently left in place on the curving balcony of the Lending Library. The exhibition boards of Back to the Modern that were first shown inside the Library in 2006 were laid out on the steps.

The Death Notice was read and a promise was made that the full story of the life and death of the Library would be published in 2015. After some poems and prose tributes were performed the big framed poster was carried in front of a jazz band in a funeral march round Chamberlain Square.

People wrote their tributes in a book, candles were lit. An inverted ziggurat was constructed from several packs of lemon slices. Only one passer-by was heard to disagree.