Central Library and Grundy Art Gallery is a Grade II listed building in the Blackpool local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 October 1983. Library, art gallery. 8 related planning applications.
Central Library and Grundy Art Gallery
- WRENN ID
- bitter-garret-crow
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Blackpool
- Constituency
- Blackpool South MP: Chris Webb (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 October 1983
- Type
- Library, art gallery
- Address
- Central Library and Grundy Art Gallery, Queen Street, FY1 1PX
- OS grid reference
- SD 307 365
- Coordinates
- 53.82059, -3.05308
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
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.
Local climate
Central Library and Grundy Art Gallery sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,380 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 13 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 88% of listed buildings. Of these, 5 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 3 transactions since 2018
- Related listed building consents — 8 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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