Highfield Library And Adjoining Librarians House

SHEFFIELD

SK38NE LONDON ROAD 784-1/6/482 (East side) Highfield Library and adjoining librarian's house

GV II

Includes: Nos.20 AND 22 ST BARNABAS ROAD. Public library and adjoining librarian's house, now advice centre. 1876, with late C20 alterations. By E Mitchell Gibbs. Brick with ashlar dressings and gabled and hipped slate roofs, the main roof topped with a truncated square turret. Italianate style. T-plan. EXTERIOR: plinth, first floor and sillbands, first floor impost band, modillion eaves cornice, coped parapet and gables with finials. 2 storeys; 6 window range. Square 2 storey central porch with pyramidal roof and finial. 2 round-arched double windows with roundels in tympanums, and hoodmoulds. Ashlar doorcase with figure brackets carrying a cornice topped with a pierced balustrade forming a balcony. Round-arched recess framing C20 double doors, with inscription on lintel and quotation from Carlyle in the tympanum. Each return has on the first floor a round-arched double window with central shaft and a roundel in the tympanum. Below, a stone mullioned cross casement. Beyond, on either side, 2 round-arched double windows with central shafts, and roundels above. Below, 2 stone mullioned cross casements. Left return gable has a canted ashlar oriel window carried on a massive bracket with segmental arch, with modillion eaves and hipped roof behind blocking course. Double window with roundel above, flanked by single lights, also with roundels. Beyond, on either side, a similar single light with roundel. All these lights have round heads. Below, a cross casement with flush mullion, and on either side, a single flat-headed light with transom. Beyond, to left, former librarian's house, now advice centre. 2 storeys plus attics; 3 window range. Plinth, first floor sillband, string course, eaves band, coped gables with kneelers, single gable stack. Openings have raised stone surrounds. 3 plain sashes and above, to right, a gable with a smaller plain sash. Central half-glazed door with overlight, flanked to left by a plain sash and to right by a canted stone bay window with 3 plain sashes and hipped roof. To right , a single storey link with a coped gable and finial. Stone mullioned cross casement with raised surround under stepped string course. Right return gable has a square 2 storey bay window with modillion eaves and hipped roof. Blank front, with a single round-arched light and roundel in each return. Below, in each return, a single flat-headed light with transom. In each gable peak, a 2-light louvred opening with flush mullion. Rear has 6 wooden framed round-arched windows. INTERIOR refitted late C20. The design is almost identical to Upperthorpe Public Library (qv), also by E Mitchell Gibbs.

Listing NGR: SK3505385688