Central Library

BURNLEY

SD8432SW PARKER LANE 906-1/20/117 (East side) 30/01/92 Central Library

GV II

Public library. 1928-30. Designed by George Hartley (architect) and built by Arthur Race (Borough Engineer). Steel frame with cladding of sandstone ashlar, hipped roofs of Cumbrian slate with glass skylights. Modernist classical style. Rectangular plan round a central well which is occupied by the main hall at ground floor. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with the appearance of one, raised over a basement, 1:3:1 bays, symmetrical, the centre projected and incorporating the porch; with a plinth, plain frieze, moulded cornice and parapet with 2 sunk bands. The projected centre, with channelled rustication, an enriched cornice and a zigguratal 3-stage roof, has a wide flight of steps up to a set-back centre bay containing a recessed porch which has 2 giant fluted Doric columns and a tall inner doorway with an overlight, enriched architrave and a cornice on fluted consoles, and above this an oblong window with an enriched architrave flanked by fasces, a frieze inscribed "PUBLIC LIBRARY" and a dentilled cornice with egg-and-dart and bead-and-roll decoration. Its flanking bays have tall 2-stage windows to the ground floor and square windows above with linked architraves and metal-framed glazing with margin panes. The wide outer bays each have one tall 12-pane window with similar glazing and an enriched pedimented architrave. The left and right-hand return walls have 5 matching windows; the rear has (inter alia) a 2-storey 6-window symmetrical projection in the centre, with a central doorway, vertical-rectangular windows at ground floor and square windows above. INTERIOR: central hall with glazed barrel-vaulted roof; staircase with mosaic dado including Vitruvian scrolls.

Listing NGR: SD8418332407