Gainsborough Library

Gainsborough Library

Public library built in 1905 to the designs of Scorer and Gamble.

The building is constructed of rich red brick laid in English bond with ashlar stone dressings and a roof covering of slates laid in diminishing courses. It has an approximately rectangular plan consisting of a single-storey entrance front facing north onto the road opposite the Old Hall, with a parallel double-height range behind flanked by projecting cross wings. The late twentieth-century staff room on the south-east side and the boiler room on the south-west corner are not included in the listing.

The building is executed in a decorative late Tudor style. Windows feature ovolo moulded mullions and transoms with a fillet. The roofscape is particularly lively, with terracotta ridge tiles and moulded parapets at the kneelered gable ends terminating in stone finials. Moulded stone cornices and string courses run at lintel and sill level and across the gable heads.

The symmetrical north frontage comprises a single-storey flat-roofed entrance front with a moulded stone parapet. The central bay projects to form a classical stone porch with flanking paired columns on panelled plinths and a moulded architrave bearing 'PUBLIC LIBRARY' engraved on the frieze. The round-arched doorway is embellished with egg-and-dart moulding and the spandrels are carved with lions' heads. The keystone above the door is carved with the date 1905. The double-leaf round-arched door has two lower panels and a glazed upper panel with a single lozenge-shaped glazing bar. The bays either side of the porch are lit by multi-pane cross windows with rounded upper lights, set in blocked architraves with moulded lintels. Behind this rises the double-height range, dominated by three projecting triangular gabled dormer windows positioned across the eaves and lit by windows matching those flanking the porch. The roof is surmounted by a large octagonal copper lantern with trefoil-headed louvred openings and a bell-shaped roof terminating in a wind vane. The cross wings are lit by large twelve-light mullioned and transomed windows with Tudor hoodmoulds. The inner return walls have gabled dormers matching those already described, while the outer return walls are lit by cross windows. The west side of the outer return wall carries two stone memorial shields inscribed with the names of prominent people associated with Gainsborough.

The west side elevation is dominated by a triangular gabled bay lit by a twelve-light mullioned and transomed window embellished with more memorial shields. The return walls are lit by cross windows, as are the bays flanking the projecting bay, all bearing shields. A twentieth-century single-storey brick extension infills the angle on the right-hand side. The east side elevation has a projecting gabled bay lit by a three-light mullioned window and a two-light window above, both with round-arched lights and Tudor hoodmoulds. There is a ridge stack with stone banding and two tall ceramic pots. A single-storey flat-roofed element housing lavatories occupies the angle on the right-hand side. This has a parapet and moulded stone string course at lintel level, lit on both walls by single-light windows in blocked stone surrounds. The subsidiary rear elevation has a moulded brick parapet and is lit by nine-over-nine pane sash windows with gauged brick arches.

Interior

The entrance door opens into a small stone-clad porch leading through to the main double-leaf door. The semi-circular arched doorways have carved soffits, and above the second arch is a metal scroll-shaped tablet inscribed 'THIS LIBRARY WAS ERECTED IN THE YEAR 1905 BY THE MUNIFICENCE OF ANDREW CARNEGIE'. The principal open-plan space imparts an air of eighteenth-century elegance with its lofty proportions and classical plasterwork. The porch leads into a single-storey foyer, panelled to dado height, divided into three bays by fluted pilasters and wide raised ribs on the ceiling with a moulded modillion cornice. Each compartment is further divided into four squares with a central circle from which radiates an ornate plasterwork design. Three arched openings opposite the front door, three on the right and two on the left (one of which has been filled in) open into the double-height cross wings and rear range. These arched openings have keyed arches springing from an egg-and-dart cornice. The cross wings have bow-shaped ceilings with elaborate Baroque-style plasterwork in the tympanums, moulded modillion cornices and arcaded friezes, and ceiling roundels encircled by bands of foliage. It is not known if the library originally had built-in bookcases; if so, none remain.

The rear range has an inserted mezzanine accessed via a straight flight of stairs, probably added in the last quarter of the twentieth century, which is not included in the listing.

The private rooms retain some original joinery and fittings, including six-panelled doors with raised and fielded panels, window ironmongery, parquet floors and fitted cupboards. Windows are set in cambered arch surrounds with moulded spandrels. The original wall tiles in the lavatory survive but have been painted over. Some doors have been replaced by fire doors.

Subsidiary Features

On the east side of the library is a pair of red brick square gatepiers with a wide stone band and flat moulded caps.