Art Gallery and Library is a Grade II listed building in the Bury local planning authority area, England. First listed on 29 January 1985. Gallery, library. 6 related planning applications.

Art Gallery and Library

WRENN ID
twisted-zinc-onyx
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Bury
Constituency
Bury North MP: Mr James Frith (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
29 January 1985
Type
Gallery, library
Address
Art Gallery and Library, Moss Street, BL9 0DF
OS grid reference
SD 803 106
Coordinates
53.59175, -2.29885
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Art Gallery and Library, built between 1899 and 1901 by Woodhouse and Willoughby of Manchester, is located at the corner with Moss Street. It is designed in a free classical style, featuring ashlar stone on the main fronts. The building is mostly two storeys high, with a basement behind a plain coped parapet. The ground floor is marked by an order of unfluted Ionic columns, with an entablature that projects forward over each column.

On the symmetrical Silver Street front, there are no columns at the re-entrant corners. The first floor features pairs of modified unfluted Doric columns framing the central part of each advanced end section, above which is a third order framing pedimented sedicules that provide gable terminations to the pitched roofs. The entrance, which has a triple arch, is topped with a cartouche flanked by standing female figures and balustrading. Each bay of the advanced sections on the ground floor has three large windows, while the first floor has no windows but includes a bas-relief frieze of crowded figures.

The Moss Street front is similar but features only one three-tier order, with the lowest tier forming a three-bay portico that serves as the entrance to the Art Gallery and Museum. Balustrading is present over the first storey entablature between the sedicules on both fronts. The building was constructed as a condition of the gift of the Wrigley Collection of paintings.

Local climate

Art Gallery and Library sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,120 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 49 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 91% of listed buildings. Of these, 28 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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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 6 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
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  10. Railings at West End of Street and Railings to Steps Down to Railway Level Grade II 118 m