This room sits at the heart of the House. It was originally called the ‘Saloon’ and was historically where the Lascelles family would have greeted guests.
The room was converted into a library in the 1840s by the British architect, Sir Charles Barry. Barry was invited to Harewood by the 3rd Earl and Countess to modernise the House and to make it more comfortable and efficient. He also added an Italianate Terrace – a fashionable formal garden with elaborate flowerbeds and clipped hedging – to the back of the House, which can be enjoyed from the full-length windows in this room.
The Library is also one of the best rooms to experience panoramic views of the earlier, more naturalistic landscape beyond the Terrace, designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.
The theme of landscape is a key theme of the decoration of the Main Library, which contains a number of paintings of local landscapes, including two of the earliest commissioned oil paintings by J.M.W. Turner.