Library with stair

Materials: coursed squared sandstone with ashlar plinth and dressings; roofs of graduated Lakeland slate with stone gable copings. Decorated style.

Plan: 2-storey, 10-bay library with stair to the North.

Exterior: the main body of the library block has square-headed 3-light ground-floor windows and paired first-floor windows with low-2-centred heads, all with transoms and tracery; bays defined by tall buttresses with one offset and gablet coping. Left and right gabled returns have 3 buttresses, the central lower, and 2-light ground-floor windows; 5-light west window over buttress with niche and statue; 4-light east window; trefoils in gable peaks; stone cross finials. Rear stair wing has 2-centred-arched windows under dripmoulds.

Interior: the dogleg stair to the library has a stone balustrade, with pierced quatrefoils. High-quality glass in the gable and stair windows. The library is fitted with Gothic bookcases and a panelled ceiling on arch-braced bracketed trusses over carved wood frieze. At the south east corner a timber traceried screen defines one bay of shelves for the librarian's use. On the ground floor of the library building the Lisbon Room retains Portuguese door furniture incorporating the Papal insignia and a Portuguese silver sanctuary lamp.