I wish I were forty years younger and living in Birmingham. Why? The New Library. If you have not yet visited then put it at the top of your list of places I must visit before I die.

Let’s start with the gardens – yes, the gardens. A natural meadow is spread out around the sunken amphitheatre even before you enter the building, and then as you rise up to level 7 there are gardens aplenty, all of them intimately related to ordinary people of all ages. For above all this is a place for everyone. In the past this could too easily have meant dumbing down or playing to the lowest common denominator, but not here. I drafted this sitting on the comfy seats in level two. It is so quiet that I have no problem thinking or writing. Yet there are people all around me, hushed conversations in all parts of the building, children playing happily on the entrance level or in the many children’s areas. One of the many miracles of this place is the creation of a building which takes culture and research very seriously and yet is open to all, at whatever level they wish to access it. There are no pings, buzzers, PA messages or in fact anything to distract you from the work you want to do. And all of this within a building which is already iconic.

Travel up the blue-neon escalators and the glass lift to the Shakespeare Room, meticulously re-created from its original position, and then view the city itself, vibrantly laid out before you – the Symphony Hall, the canals, the resurrected New Street Station, all lie below you – and that itself seems symbolic, for the work, the research, the thought that lies at the heart of the new library must act as a driving force for what Birmingham is now and will become in the future. Many may have been doubtful that the expense was worth it – it was worth every penny, and will be worth its weight in gold as time goes on.

And I’ve not mentioned the toilets! If every public building had as many toilets per person as this has there would never again be any complaints about queues.

If this is an example of public finance and public responsibility in action, then it is the finest example I can think of to justify more power to local authorities. Birmingham can justifiably be proud of what it has achieved. Who’s next?! BH