Edward Pease Public Library And Darlington Art Gallery

CROWN STREET 1. (East Side) 5195 Edward Pease Public Library and Darlington Art Gallery NZ 2914 NW 9/249

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1. Exuberant civic building inscribed Edward Pease Free Library 1884. One storey and attic; 6 bays on East Street, canted angle and 21 bays on Crown Street front, of which the 6th bay from the right is an entrance. Strong red brick with plentiful terra-cotta dressings. High pitched roof of graduated Lakeland slates with big, decorative ridge stacks. Attic windows in gables of an elaborate Dutch renaissance style, at intervals; some straight and some serpentine open pediments. All windows have baroque treatment: scrolled side pieces and moulded projecting key blocks running up through segmental pediments with fan decoration. Brickwork panels below. Five splayed steps, with cast iron lame holders on side walls, to corner doorway under pediment holding coats of arms among scrolls. A few wrought iron area railings remain. Wood cupola with ogee lead dome on ridge above side entrance. Plaque on west wall refers to a stone with an iron hitching ring set below. This is where W.T. Stead, the celebrated campaigning journalist, used to tie his horse when he was editor of the "Northern Echo".

Listing NGR: NZ2905514642