Sur son blog qui va à la découverte des rues de Birmingham 
, Jenni Coles-Harris rapporte que :
| In 1796 it was decided that the library needed a purpose built building for its expanding collection, and William Hollins was chosen to design and build the structure, left (I will explore the architecture of the building in a separate post). The building opened late in 1797, and the rent of the land was paid for by a Tontine Deed drawn up at the beginning of 1798. Tontine meant that a number of subscribers would pay a subscription out of which the rent would be taken out and the excess reserved. Each subscriber could nominate either themselves or another individual to the Tontine and whoever survived the rest received the lump accumulated sum; this is why it was often very young children who were nominated. Nearly 180 individuals were nominated (with about 150 doing the nominating) for the library Tontine Deed (details and names of these can be seen here). |
La liste exhaustive des bénéficiaires, leur adresse et la profession de leur père (le souscripteur) apparaissent ici et là
