Denbigh's public library has an unusually distinguished home: the Shire Hall built in 1572 by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, which originally combined an open, colonnaded market hall at ground level with a council and justice chamber above. The building was remodelled in the 1780s, gaining a new roof and elegant Venetian windows, and its ground-floor colonnades were later enclosed to create the interior space the library now occupies.
It's a rare case of a 16th-century civic building remaining in continuous public use into the 21st century — from Elizabethan law court and market hall to modern lending library — making a visit to borrow a book in Denbigh also, incidentally, a visit to one of the town's oldest surviving civic buildings.
Denbigh's library building on Hall Square has itself served the town's public and civic life for centuries: the site was originally home to the Earl of Leicester's 1572 Shire Hall, later rebuilt as a Victorian market hall before being converted for use as the town library. That long history makes the building itself, quite aside from the books inside, a small piece of Denbigh's civic story.
As with public libraries across Wales, Denbigh Library offers far more than book lending today, typically including local history and genealogy resources, computer and internet access, and a programme of community events — useful for visitors researching the town's past as well as for local residents.