Childrens Library

This is a public library built in 1932. It incorporates part of the facade of a former Savings Bank dating from the 1820s, and was constructed for the Borough of Lancaster. The building is sandstone ashlar with a flat roof and skylight, and is roughly square in plan. It is linked at the rear to the Public Library on Market Street.

The facade has three bays and stands one storey high. A central doorway is flanked by two pairs of fluted Greek Ionic columns, placed within antae. The antae and doorway feature a frieze decorated with a Greek key motif, dating from 1932. The columns, dating from the 1820s, stand on a fluted plinth and support a deep entablature with a dentil cornice; the projecting central section of the blocking course is decorated with scrollwork. Above the doorway is a panel with the inscription 'PUBLIC LIBRARY JUNIORS' in raised letters, set within a pediment over double doors with three raised and fielded panels each. The recesses behind the columns contain tripartite windows with mullions designed as panelled pilasters, topped with an entablature and dentil cornice. A balustrade of ornamental ironwork sits in front of the columns.

An elevation drawing from 1848 by Sharpe and Paley (Lancaster Reference Library PL 2/64) shows a facade resembling the current one, but without windows and with a central doorway. This drawing, titled ‘Plans for the Alteration of the Savings Bank,’ is likely a survey rather than an original design, as an Ordnance Survey map from 1845 shows the Savings Bank with a similar recessed facade. The bank was established in 1823, and it is possible the original design was by William Coulthart, an architect working in Lancaster in the 1820s, known for other works in the Greek Revival style. In 1932, the facade was rebuilt 12 feet back from its original position to accommodate the New Street Improvement Line. The building is listed as a significant surviving example of Greek Revival design in Lancaster.