Tunstall Public Library And Public Baths

SJ 85 SE; 613-1/2/165

STOKE ON TRENT, TUNSTALL, THE BOULEVARD (north side)

Tunstall Public Library and Public Baths

II

Public Library, formerly Victoria Institute, and public baths. 1889. Brick with stone and terracotta dressings and plain tiled roofs. Three-storeyed, main elevation of nine bays (4-1-4), with projecting central entrance porch with Jacobean detailing: round-arched doorway with frieze in flanking stone pilasters, and coat of arms in shallow segmental pediment. Two large mullioned and transomed windows above, and pedimented gable with arms. Outer bays of banded brick to ground floor, with stone mullioned windows with stone dressings - continuous sills and hoodmoulds. Terracotta frieze over windows reading "Free Library Public Baths, Art and Science Institute". Consoles carry pilasters articulating the first storey, and a projecting cornice beneath round-arched arcade of windows in the attic storey. Four bays to Greengates Street similarly detailed, and a massive hanging wrought-iron sign reading "Thomas Nash Peake gave this AD 1901" and on the obverse, "Tunstall Free Library. William Dunrose made this, AD 1901" in Gothic script. Public Baths is a two-storeyed brick building to Greengates Street, linked to the library via its rear courtyard range.

A significant example of the provision of municipal facilities in late C19.

Listing NGR: SJ8637043340