Victoria Hall And Public Library

Victoria Hall and Public Library is a concert hall and public library built in 1887. It is constructed from coursed rock-faced millstone grit with ashlar dressings and has Welsh slate roofs with coped gables and kneelers. The building is designed in the Gothic Revival style and has a cruciform plan, with the main range containing a library on the ground floor and a hall on the first floor, and entrances in east and west wings, the east wing featuring a bell tower.

The east bell tower is square and has steps and a ramp leading to a 4-centred arch doorway in a moulded ashlar surround with double panel doors and overlight. It is flanked by single dated foundation stones, above which are two single-light windows and a rectangular plaque displaying a coat-of-arms inscribed 'Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough / Virtus, Veritas et Libertas'. Above this is a pointed arch bell opening to each face, with tracery and louvres, topped by a quatrefoil parapet, projecting corner pinnacles with ball finials, and a square spire with a finial and lucarnes.

The north front features a 5-window canted apsidal end with a 4-window side, divided by single-story pilasters topped with ball finials. Blind quatrefoil panels are set between the floors, topped with a blind arcaded and coped parapet. The side windows are single-light, while the apsidal windows are paired in chamfered surrounds with a dividing mullion. The central bay is topped by a pedimented gable with a ball finial and an escutcheon inscribed 'Public Library Glossop'. The west entrance to Victoria Hall is similar to the east entrance, with two matching windows above and a gable.

The remaining elevations feature similar detailing. A basement level is visible to the rear south facade. The interior includes a main entrance hall with glazed tiles bearing a heraldic motif and an inscription. The tower contains a staircase to the first-floor hall, with a separate wooden staircase accessed from the west. The ground-floor library retains moulded architraves to panelled doors, and engaged pilasters support encased wide beams; the space is plastered and painted.

The building was constructed to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and was donated by H Rhodes and Capt Partington. The foundation stones were laid on 30 July 1887.