Low Hill Branch Library

Low Hill Branch Library

A branch library built in 1930, designed by H.B. Robinson, the Borough Engineer. The building is constructed of plumb-coloured stretcher-bond brick with sandstone dressings, a green slate roof, and orange clay ridge tiles.

The structure is distinctive in its octagonal form, comprising three stepped tiers: a ground floor, a recessed clerestory, and a timber lantern above. A stone plinth girds the building at ground level, and a stone parapet runs at ground floor level. A rectangular boilerhouse extension projects from the rear with a square chimney placed diagonally, the chimney featuring stone dressings to its mid body and top.

The entrance front has a central doorway with a stone surround, flanked by attached Tuscan columns with frieze pieces containing oval projecting panels. Above the doorway sits a broken segmental pediment supported by a central bracket, containing the coat of arms for Wolverhampton. The parapet above is slightly raised and bears the inscription "PUBLIC LIBRARY". The angled flank walls to either side have brick to their lower body and 7-light chamfered mullioned windows above. The west front contains a central doorway with a decorated rectangular fanlight and deeply chamfered surround, with single-light windows at either side and 2-light windows in the upper body. The east front has a central 3-light window with 2-light windows at either side in the upper body. The north-east and north-west angled walls have 7-light windows to their upper bodies. Above the rectangular boilerhouse at ground floor level, the clerestory tier features 3-light chamfered mullioned windows to each face set in brickwork. A pitched roof rises to the clerestory level with further 3-light windows, and another pitched roof rises above to a lead cap, formerly crowned with a weather vane.

The interior is reached through panelled wooden double doors with a rectangular fanlight, opening into a rectangular lobby with an original tiled floor and half-glazed walls with stained-glass insets looking into the children's library on the right and the reference library (now an office) on the left. Double half-glazed doors open to the main reading room. At each ground floor angle are astylar pillars supporting the clerestory, with an astylar entablature. Attached to the columns are original metal mechanisms with brass handles for opening the upper windows. The wood block flooring survives, though the original furniture—a central raised panopticon librarian's desk with stacks to the rear—has been replaced. Historical photographs show the library originally had stained-glass inserts to the leaded lights forming the external fenestration; these were replaced with plain glazing but have since been reinstated with an additional protective layer of glass.

The design was featured in the libraries section of the Architectural Association conference held at Cambridge in 1930. The building is positioned to one side of a large circular green forming the centre of the Bushbury Estate, developed during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time of opening, Wolverhampton's Chief Librarian remarked on the significance of the site: "The building is erected on a central site, and roads radiate from this point, the whole scheme having been designed to give a like elevation from whichever angle it is viewed. At night it is a beacon light and its illumination across this vast estate is worth seeing." The octagonal library serves as a logical and inspired response to the requirement for a branch library at the heart of the estate, widely admired upon completion. The rooms are filled with daylight, and at night the building functions as a beacon. The simple classical style, combined with homely glazing and textured materials, conveys both domesticity and serious intent, providing a formal focus to the estate without appearing alien to it.