Toxteth Public Library

Toxteth Public Library is a library built in 1902 by T. Shelmerdine. It features red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof. The building is one storey high, with an attic in the central three bays and a total of five bays. The end bays project under gables and have flush stone banding and a top cornice, with stone-coped gables. The end bays also include Venetian windows supported by rusticated colonnettes, with a pulvinated frieze and cornice forming a hood over the central light; the windows are sashes with glazing bars.

Flanking the entrance are single tripartite windows with a cornice above. A band decorated with cartouches and foliage displays the inscription "TOXTETH LIBRARY," with an entablature above that features eared architraves and triple keystones. The gables are adorned with obelisk finials and scrolls, while round-headed recesses at the apexes contain cartouches and are topped with open segmental pediments. The central entrance is round-arched, featuring a carved keystone, Ionic columns, pilasters, and a deeply projecting round-arched hood on foliated consoles. Above, a central louvre is supported by four Tuscan aedicules with open pediments and round-headed louvred openings, leading to a lead cupola.

The library has a five-bay return to Upper Parliament Street, where the central two bays project forward under gables, also featuring Venetian windows. Inside, there is a segmental vaulted entrance hall, and the central bays have a glazed dome over a galleried hall. The end bays feature coffered segmental vaults, with the northern vault showcasing a painting in a lunette. A copper plaque in the entrance commemorates the library's opening and is richly decorated with enamel roundels.