Central Library And Grundy Art Gallery

The Central Library and Grundy Art Gallery, built between 1909 and 1910 by Cullen, Lockhead and Brown, is a library and art gallery located on a corner site at the junction of Abingdon Street and Queen Street in Blackpool. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and is designed in a free Baroque style.

It features two storeys, with each facade adorned with two flanking pylons set on stone plinths. A giant arch breaks the entablature, with jambs made of banded stone and brick, enclosing a pedimented ground floor window and an upper staircase window topped by a bullseye. Between the pylons, there are four round-headed windows with eared architraves and exaggerated keystones, separated by banded pilaster strips. A stone entablature runs along the top, and there is an attic storey above with rectangular windows in architraves featuring keystones.

The facades are capped by an octagonal dome with a lead roof and an urn finial. This dome is supported by a curved colonnade of coupled Ionic columns that hold up an entablature and balustrade. The central panel of the frieze displays the words "Central Public Library." The adjoining Art Gallery along the Queen Street facade has banded quoins and an entrance framed by coupled Ionic columns in antis, along with an entablature that includes stone coping and a balustrade.