John Rylands Library (more fully the John Rylands Research Institute and Library) is a late‑Victorian neo-Gothic library on Deansgate in central Manchester, now part of the University of Manchester.
It was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, the industrialist John Rylands, and opened to the public on 1 January 1900.
The library holds over 250,000 printed volumes and more than a million manuscripts and archival items, built largely from major private collections such as the Althorp Library of the 2nd Earl Spencer and the Bibliotheca Lindesiana.
 
Interesting fact...
The Rylands Papyri include the St John Fragment (Papyrus P52), a tiny scrap that is probably the earliest known piece of the Gospel of John; by itself it doesn’t look like much, but it carries disproportionate scholarly and popular mystique.