Carnegie Library

Library, 1906, Eclectic style, built with a grant from the Scottish-American businessman and public benefactor Andrew Carnegie. The building is constructed in red sandstone for the main elevations, with red brick used to the rear elevation (a money-saving design concealed from the street). The plan forms a reverse L-shape, comprising a 2-storey main front range facing south onto Egerton Street and a single-storey rear range set at right angles to the road.

EXTERIOR

The main 4-bay front elevation features a prominent first bay that projects forward and to the side as a tower. The ground floor contains the main entrance, a wide recessed doorway (later door replacement) with multiple arched heads and a drip mould above. A series of five lights incorporating decorative stained glass and the words "FREE LIBRARY AND READING ROOM" follows the line of the arches. The ground floor of bays 2 to 4, and a window to the west wall of the entrance tower, are fitted with 4-light mullion and transom windows. The lower lights originally contained leaded lights incorporating stained glass in the style of the first floor windows but have since been replaced with plain glazing. An angled buttress projects from the far right. Two projecting stringcourses enclose a band of decorative carved stonework depicting floral and foliage designs in a Tudor flower style. The decorative band to bay 1 incorporates carved lettering reading "THE GIFT OF ANDREW CARNEGIE 1906".

The first floor of bay 1 contains a 6-light mullion and transom window with leaded lights and stained glass designs, the upper lights featuring tri-cusped heads. An 8-light window in the same style sits to the right above the ground floor bays. The parapet features a reverse ogee and carved stonework detailing to the roofline.

A low 2-storey quarter-hexagonal stair turret projects from the left gable end behind the main entrance tower. It includes a square casement window incorporating stained glass of the same design as the front elevation, and a band of decorative carved stonework matching that of the front elevation. The lower rear section of the east gable end is executed in brick, a money-saving design rendered invisible from the front by the adjoining house. A sandstone chimney stack rises from the east gable wall; a small later brick chimney stack sits to the roof of the entrance tower.

INTERIOR

The entrance lobby features a decorative tiled mosaic floor depicting stemmed blue flowers. A larger area of mosaic may survive beneath later carpeting in the front range, as shown in a 1906 photograph. The original revolving entrance door has been lost. Original green and dark brown glazed tiled dados run along all original internal walls, with deep moulded cornicing throughout.

The rear range is divided by an early to mid-20th-century partition wall. The west wall was formerly the external wall of the adjoining Waterloo House and retains a deep recessed doorway with a surround incorporating pilasters and a decorative head keystone (possibly depicting Andrew Carnegie or Charles Hazlehurst, the original owner of Waterloo House). Arched 4-light casement windows flank this doorway, and a square-headed 4-light casement window sits to the far right; all feature upper lights incorporating stained glass in the same style as the external windows. Two windows to the right light a south room. The rear north room retains tiled dados and cornicing, with tall windows to the north wall featuring stained glass upper lights (the lower lights have been replaced with plain glazing). A door and window open from the west wall.

The south room, now accessed only from the front range due to the partition, displays tiled dados and cornicing beneath a late-20th-century suspended ceiling, with a truncated south wall.

The front range features an ornate cast-iron spiral staircase to the north-west corner stair turret behind the main entrance. The left section of the rear north wall has been knocked through in the early to mid-20th century to incorporate spaces from Waterloo House and provide access to the rear annexe. A mid to late-20th-century dog-leg stair in the north-east corner leads to the first floor former reference library. Four decorative stained glass lights separated by pilasters sit to the left of the stair; these originally lit the front and rear ranges.

The former reference library retains tiled dados and an original timber board floor beneath later carpeting. Windows to the rear north wall have plain glazing to the lower lights (a deliberate money-saving design). A chimney breast rises from the east gable wall, though the fireplace has been lost. An office in the south-west corner retains an original half-panelled, half-glazed door and lower walls; the upper walls were built up to the ceiling in the mid to late-20th century. An early-20th-century door (its panels since boarded over) to the left of the rear north wall provides access into the first floor of Waterloo House.

HISTORY

Runcorn's first free library opened in 1882, originally believed to be located in the adjoining Waterloo House, though it is not identified as such on historic Ordnance Survey maps until 1899. Following Andrew Carnegie's donation in 1906, this purpose-built library was constructed on a plot adjacent to Waterloo House. The rear range was built on to the house, and the original east external wall of Waterloo House subsequently became an internal wall. At this time, Waterloo House served as a town hall, and direct access was provided between the two buildings via a doorway in this shared wall. In the early to mid-20th century, some of the ground floor rooms of Waterloo House's rear range were opened up into a single large room and incorporated into the library. A single-storey building to the rear of the site, originally part of the Technical Institute on Waterloo Road, was also incorporated at approximately the same period and is accessed through the Waterloo House room.

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American businessman and public benefactor who established the first Carnegie library in 1879 in his home town of Dunfermline, Scotland. Following this success, further libraries were established with his grants (for buildings and equipment, though not books) across the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States. Local authorities receiving Carnegie grants were required to provide a site for the library and levy a rate of one penny to cover its maintenance. The first grant for a library in England was provided for Keighley in West Yorkshire in 1899. By his death in 1919, Carnegie had provided grants to 380 libraries across the UK.

Carnegie Library displays an unusual and highly successful eclectic design, unlike many contemporary libraries which utilised Flemish-style architecture. The building retains a clearly readable original floor plan and a high level of original architectural survival. It employs high-quality materials and displays strong decorative and architectural features both internally and externally: windows incorporating Mackintosh-style stained glass designs, carved stonework, an ornate cast-iron spiral staircase, mosaic floors, and glazed tile dados. These qualities give the building special architectural and historic interest within a national context.