Former Wedgwood Institute (Public Library)

SJ 8649 NE, 613-1/10/20

STOKE ON TRENT, BURSLEM, Queen Street (north side), Former Wedgwood Institute (Public Library)

19.04.72

G.V.

II*

Public Library, the former Wedgwood Institute, built as library, art school etc. in 1869. Original plans prepared by G. B. Nichols of Wolverhampton, design modified by Robert Edgar and John Lockwood Kipling. Brick with terracotta dressings and plain tiled roof. 2 storeys, a richly ornamented facade with central doorway in slightly advanced gabled porch enriched with terracotta frieze and shafts to arched entry, flanked by busts in shallow niches, and with tiles around the archway. It is surmounted by a bust of Josiah Wedgwood. Windows form a continuous arcade on both storeys, and between the storeys, are 10 bass relief terracotta panels by M. H. Blanchard or Rowland Morris which depict processes in the manufacture of pottery. Above the upper windows, a further series of terracotta panels set in arcading illustrate the months of the year, and over them, a further arcade with mosaic signs of the zodiac. Heavy eaves cornice carried on console brackets with a terracotta frieze of pierced quatrefoils above. The architectural ornamentation, though not the applied sculpture, continues round the side elevations for several bays.

(SOURCES: The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: Harmondsworth; The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Pugh R. B.: Staffordshire: Oxford: 1963-).

Listing NGR: SJ8686649748