Public Library

The Public Library on St James's Road was designed by George H Wenyon with sculpture by H H Martyn of Cheltenham and opened in 1909. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The original building comprises two storeys, with a four-storey flat-roofed extension added to the rear in 1964. The architectural style is Edwardian Baroque.

The street front is arranged in five bays symmetrically disposed, with the central three bays projecting to create a composition that builds towards the central entrance. The basement features ashlar walling with mullioned windows at the left. The ground floor is rusticated with alternate, pronounced, projecting bands. The first floor has banded rustication to the ashlar dressings and brick walling. The central bay contains an emphatically projecting doorcase at its centre, flanked by heavily banded Tuscan columns which support an open and broken pediment. Resting on this pediment at either side are recumbent figures representing Science (left) and Literature (right). Above them is a panel with relief lettering reading "PUBLIC/LIBRARY", and above this rises a tall arched staircase window projecting into a semi-circular pediment crowned by a large figure of Philosophy. Either side of the central bay are mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor, with recessed bays above them flanked by Ionic columns featuring circular windows surrounded by wreaths and swags. The bays to the far right and left have canted bays at ground floor level with Gibbs surrounds to the central windows and segmental pediments above them. The upper sections of these bays contain panels of blind walling decorated with pilaster strips, garlands and wreaths. A parapet tops the wall. Four prominent lead downpipes with hoppers are supported by projecting models of cherubs across the front. The building adjoins the Town Hall (completed 1928) to its east; keyed brickwork on that side indicates that an addition or continuation was planned from the outset. The north face is largely masked by the mid-20th-century addition, though a single bay at the far left retains a canted bay at ground floor level. The west side also features the 1964 addition at left, but at right are two bays from 1909, the far right of which contains a Serlian window at first floor level lighting one of the reading rooms.

The entrance hall is laid with terrazzo flooring and features pilasters with projecting bands to their lower bodies. The central staircase hall has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and deep cornice. The dogleg staircase is constructed of marble with a deep balustrade and vase-balusters. The two first floor reading rooms have panelled walls and barrel vaults with roof lights. The western reading room has a Venetian window to its end wall.

The library was built as a result of a donation of £7,500 by Andrew Carnegie in 1905. George H Wenyon of Dudley won the commission following a design competition. The foundation stone was laid on 26 June 1908 by the Countess of Dudley and the Mayor, Councillor Cook. The library opened in September 1909, formally inaugurated by John Hubert Ward, Equerry to Edward VII. When first opened, the library included a reference library, magazine room and lending department, along with research rooms including a separate ladies' reading room on the first floor. Only library staff had direct access to books on the shelves; lending books were requested and delivered to borrowers in the central hall. The first librarians were Miss E J Southall, who served as chief librarian, and her two sisters, Miss E L Southall and Miss A R Southall. Open access to the lending library was not adopted until 1933.

The building was modernised in 1933 and again in 1947. In 1964 a four-storey flat-roofed extension was added to the rear. Ordnance Survey maps show that the building's footprint has not changed greatly since the Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1919, though early photographs reveal that the building was initially largely single-storeyed at the rear. George H Wenyon also designed the Tipton District Public Library (Grade II), completed in 1905 and also funded by Andrew Carnegie.