Central Library

WOLVERHAMPTON

SO9198SE GARRICK STREET 895-1/14/223 (East side) 03/02/77 Central Library (Formerly Listed as: GARRICK STREET Library)

II*

Public Library. 1900-1902. By H.T.Hare. Brick with yellow terracotta dressings; tile roof. Free Renaissance style. 2 storeys; 7-bay facade to Garrick St, canted 4-bay corner and 3-bay facade to St.George's Parade. Terracotta plinth and top frieze and coped parapet; 1st bay breaks forward with parapeted return, 2nd bay has coped gable with panel to apex. Ground floor has segmental-headed windows with moulded arches, fixed glazing with central arched lights and leaded glazing, between flat banded buttresses; 1st floor has 2-light double-chamfered-mullioned windows, friezes with names of eminent poets and broken pediments with panels; these are laced with strips to round attic windows with keystones; 1st bay has tall window of 2 narrow lights with transom over panel and semi-circular open pediment; entrance with architrave and flanking banding and triple keystone in tympanum; half-glazed door retains letterbox. Pavilion roof has fleche and stack; C20 extension to left returned to Old Hall St. Corner to right has 3-bay centre breaking forward under coped gable with top niche. Banded ground floor has 2 cross-mullioned windows; 1st floor has 3+3+3-light windows with Ionic colonnettes, transom and central pediment, apron panels have Royal arms and flanking town arms; attic has small Venetian window; flanking bays have small paired lights with pediments and top lunettes with battered octagonal cupolas. Top louvre with fleche. 3-bay arcade with giant triple keystones to recessed entrances flanking window. Facade to St.George's Parade as above but 1st floor has central bowed oriel of 4 lights and 2 transoms with flanking lights, segmental gable over, and 2 cross-mullioned windows with name-friezes and segmental pediments. INTERIOR: stair with balustrade and lantern, rooms with Ionic columns; 1st floor has barrel- vaulted room with aisles with balustraded balconies, and room with glazed dome on Ionic columns. A particularly good example of this style. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: P.317).

Listing NGR: SO9161998376