[5] From the 1960s onwards several plans were made and discussed for a new purpose-built-library, often in conjunction with other developments such as a combined car park and exhibition centre.

These, and the houses, workshops and other small buildings surrounding it, were accessed by a narrow lane whose site is now Jubilee Mews.

[5] The new library was intended to be the focus of a large-scale mixed-use development which involved the creation of a new pedestrianised piazza[10] and the reinstatement as a through route of Jubilee Street, severed when the surrounding derelict land became a makeshift car park.

[5] (The street was laid out in the 1840s across Jubilee Field, so named when a wealthy resident's free party for the town's poor people to celebrate George III's Jubilee in 1809 brought in so many people that they spilled out of the Royal Pavilion stables and on to the adjacent field.

[5] It was immediately popular with residents and visitors: 2,000 people entered the building in its first two hours, and it became so crowded that the doors had to be closed temporarily and the toilets stopped flushing from overuse.

It has been called "a rare example of first-class design emanating from the controversial Private Finance Initiative",[19] "a triumph ... carefully wrought but nonetheless striking",[3] "crisp, simple ... and pack[ing] a surprising architectural punch"[20] and "a stunning piece of architecture that enhances its location".

[5][10] Further to the east, the wing containing staff and conference rooms is faced with glazed blue tiles which imitate mathematical tiles—an 18th-century design element used frequently in Brighton but rarely found elsewhere.

[10][22] The west side is the only other clearly visible elevation (it faces Jubilee Street); the ground floor is continuously glazed, and above this layers of blue and green imitation mathematical tiles are interspersed with windows at irregular intervals.

Architecture critic Hugh Pearman praised their use "at a time when every other building in the western world seems to have an off-the-peg terracotta skin".

[10][23] Inside the children's section is the Wall of a Thousand Stories by Kate Malone—a series of multicoloured ceramic plaques.

[24][23] Another art installation, Liquidus, also has a functional role: it is a pair of "primeval" timber and glass benches which are lit from beneath after dark.

[5][19][25][26] The architects planned three revolving funnels to let the air out and "dramatise" the roofline, but this feature was dropped before construction.

The project was also a finalist or runner-up in contests including the 2005 Stirling Prize—an international competition run by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

[26] The Jubilee Square development as a whole has been praised for linking two important historic parts of the city centre—the North Laine and the Royal Pavilion grounds—which had previously been isolated from each other by the "desolate space" of temporary car parks and wasteland.

[11][25] The library's opening and success encouraged commercial development round it, which in turn helped to pay for it through the 25-year private finance scheme set up in 2000.

[27] The council estimated in 2005 that the library and the associated commercial development would generate £20 million for the city's economy, based on increased spending by visitors and the creation of hundreds of jobs.

It spent £1.6 million of public money on the scheme, so a greater than tenfold return on investment was expected.

The private finance contract allowed the council to buy new stock at preferential rates, and about 20,000 new items were added in the first few months.

[30] They also run dedicated sessions for getting people online, film screenings, children's events and have held drag queen storytime.