The complex includes two halls, the first was built in memory of John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, and the second in memory of Robert Montgomery Martin. It was built in 1866 at the initial cost of Rs.108,000, contributed by the Punjab Chiefs and leading Lahore citizens. The conformity of style with the earlier building was ensured by G. Stone who, in order to present a single unified whole, linked the space between the two halls by a covered corridor. a park previously known as "Lawrence Gardens". The original curved roof of the Montgomery Hall was disassembled and substituted in 1875 with a teak floor for singing and dancing. The roof was coated, stimulated and corrugated with a decorative carved wooden cling stunningly painted in Egyptian and Italian patterns and fitted with glass windows. On May 1, 1878, the services of the halls, library and the reading room officially got the name of “Lahore and Mian Mir Institute.” The amenities, particularly the elitism of the place, turned it into a club where the people started getting registered as members. The name was changed to “Lahore Gymkhana Club” on January 23, 1906. In January 1972, the Lahore Gymkhana Club was shifted to Upper Mall and the building became an academy for administrative training by the government of Pakistan only to in May 17, 1981, renovation of the building was started to turn it into a public library. On December 25, 1984, the then President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq officially inaugurated the Quaid-e-Azam Library. In 2013, the government constructed two basements on the western and eastern sides of the library to add 20,000 sq. meters of reading space.
Architecture
The complex included two halls, namely the Montgomery Hall and Lawrence Hall. They are built in the neoclassical style.
Library
As of 2014, the library has 125,000 volumes, both in English and Urdu languages. Nearly two thousand books are added to the library annually. It has more than 17,000 people enrolled as the members of the library. The Lawrence Hall is normally used as an assembly room for public meetings and theatrical and musical amusements. Nearly 19,000 people visit the library annually. It is a non-lending library.
