Borough Engineering Services Department (Ii)

1. SWINBURNE STREET 5099 Borough Engineering Services Department (II) NZ 2563 5/113

II GV

1. The former Public Library. 1885 by John Johnstone. Ashlar in an extravagant neo- baroque style. Welsh slate roof. Two storeys and attic, five bays, the central bay projecting under a shaped, pedimented gable with round-arched attic windows. Flanking broken serpentine pediments have round windows, urn finials and carved swags. Urns rest on parapet at ends and between gables. Heavy entablatures to both floors, resting on end pilasters and (on first floor) paired pilasters between windows. Carved friezes. Flat arched first floor windows, the central tripartite and breaking the pediment of the entrance, which rests on two heavy carved brackets. Ground floor openings round arched with archivolts, key stones with masks and impost string; nook shafts to door. Ground floor rusticated with sunk apron panels.

Included partly for group interest with the remaining municipal buildings on Swinburne Street-West Street.

Listing NGR: NZ2551363409