Pontefract Museum

Pontefract Museum, originally the Carnegie Public Library, was built in 1904 by the architectural firm Garside and Pennington from Pontefract and Castleford. The building features red brick in an irregular bond with cream terracotta dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is two storeys tall and has a layout of one bay, three bays, and one bay, with the end bays projecting as wings. These wings have corner pilasters that rise as battered crenellated pylons made of terracotta, adorned with lotus flowers.

At the center, there is a single-storey gabled porch that projects forward, featuring a round-arched opening with terracotta voussoirs, a keystone, and a hoodmould. The porch is flanked by casement windows. The wings contain Venetian windows with terracotta surrounds, joggled voussoirs, large keystones, and hoodmoulds. The central lights of these windows have sunburst glazing bars, while the flanking lights have oblique glazing bars. The soffits are decorated with egg-and-dart moulding, and the jambs feature lotus flowers. The left wing has a single Venetian window, while the right wing's window is divided horizontally. The left wing is lower and has a gable with a plaque depicting a portcullis, surrounded by the inscription 'SIGILLUM COMMUNE BURGENSIUM PONTISFRACTI'.

Inside the porch, there are part-glazed round-arched doors. The entrance hall features the inscription 'Free Library 1904' along with decorative patterns in a tessellated floor, dark-green tile architraves and cornice, and lighter-green wall tiles with panels of four patterned tiles.