All the best things in many British cities are Victorian era

>>2679132
That library had to have 5 years worth of work recently done on it to keep it going. It finished like 2 years ago. We keep these buildings going by force of fucking will. Same with the Manchester museum.

t. lives in Manchester.

>>2679132

>When and why was the idea of moral and intellectual improvement for individuals and society given up on?

It never was. The fetishism Americans have for helicopter parenting is borne from it. But it expresses itself in different ways: two centuries ago, if you wanted to educate a populace quickly you had to build a giant library and pay to have books copied. More recently the government chose to standardize all K12 education (even down to weekly exams) as a means of most efficiently generating intellectual improvement.

Which is to say, times change and the requirements for educational facilities do as well. It makes sense to have a big grand brick library, because it can't burn down. At my old school they dumped all the books and replaced it with a computer lab, which is now used at capacity because so many parents force their kids into accelerated hybrid classes. Did some people cry when all the books were dumped? Sure they did, but those people were all the old union teachers who will be retired in ten years.

>>2679181
I went to Manchester for uni. The library is truly fantastic.

>>2679132
The 19th and 20th century was when the British empire was at it's height. Therefore there was more money to spend on museums, galleries etc.

Of course once you've built a museum it stays there. You don't need to build it again.

I love old buildings. They really beed to be preserved carefully. Rome is a good example of being unable to maintain older buildings.

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>>2679192

this post made by blood pressure increase