Highfield Library And Adjoining Librarians House

Highfield Library and the adjoining librarian’s house, now an advice centre, were built in 1876 and later altered in the late 20th century. Designed by E. Mitchell Gibbs, the buildings are constructed of brick with ashlar dressings, featuring gabled and hipped slate roofs, with the main roof topped by a truncated square turret. The architectural style is Italianate.

The building has a T-shaped layout. The exterior displays a plinth, a first-floor sillband, an impost band, a modillion eaves cornice, a coped parapet, and gables with finials. The main façade has six windows and showcases a square, two-story central porch with a pyramidal roof and finial. This porch features two round-arched double windows with roundels in the tympanums and hoodmoulds. An ashlar doorcase, supported by figure brackets carrying a cornice topped with a pierced balustrade balcony, frames modern double doors. The lintel bears an inscription and a quotation from Carlyle within the tympanum. The first floor features round-arched double windows with central shafts and roundels above, while the ground floor has stone mullioned cross casements. To the left return gable is a canted ashlar oriel window supported by a massive bracket with a segmental arch, modillion eaves, and a blocking course. This oriel window has a double window with a roundel above, flanked by single lights, also with roundels. The librarian’s house, to the right, is two stories tall with attic space and three windows. It has a plinth, a first-floor sillband, a string course, an eaves band, coped gables with kneelers, and a single gable stack. The windows are set within raised stone surrounds. The rear of the library features six wooden-framed round-arched windows.

The interior was refitted in the late 20th century. The design closely resembles that of Upperthorpe Public Library, also by E. Mitchell Gibbs.