Public Library

Library and former town hall. Designed in 1862 by Peck and Stephens with additions in 1884 designed by G MacDonell, built in the Italianate style. Yellow gault brick with ashlar dressings and hipped slate roofs. The building is 2 storeys.

The main front on Wheeler Street comprises 11 bays with a central single storey ashlar entrance featuring Ionic columns supporting an entablature, surmounted by the city coat-of-arms and inscribed "1884, FREE LIBRARY". The doorway is round-headed with double panel doors and a fanlight. On either side are 5 round-headed margin light sashes with moulded ashlar heads and a continuous impost band above an ashlar cornice. The upper floor contains 10 similar round-headed sashes with brick coupled Doric pilasters between each window, the whole surmounted by an entablature. At the junction with Peas Hill, a canted corner bay features small flat-headed sashes and round windows above; the upper floor has a loggia with 4 Ionic ashlar columns and a single round-headed doorway.

The Peas Hill front comprises 4 bays with a slightly projecting entrance bay defined by brick Doric pilasters and a round-headed doorway with double panel doors and fanlight. To the left is a single flat-headed casement and to the right are 2 round-headed margin light sashes with moulded heads and continuous impost band above an ashlar cornice. The upper floor has 4 similar round-headed sashes with plain coupled brick Doric pilasters between them, except for the window over the doorway which has lightly projecting Doric pilasters with 2 inset Ionic ashlar columns.

Internally, the Central Junior Library contains a stone fireplace from the early to mid-16th century, originally from John Vesey's House (recorded by RCHM). The library store retains original fitted book cases with an iron gallery for upper access, featuring an elegant iron balustrade and small iron spiral staircase. The rotunda has 8 tall marble columns arranged in a hexagon with 4 additional columns, one at each corner, and pilasters on the walls. Each column has an ornate Corinthian capital and ornately decorated sections of entablature above. The columns support 8 round arches with bracketed keystones. Above is a narrow clerestory, then a shallow circular dome with plaster panels and a central glazed cupola.

The town hall section is 5 bays and 2 storeys, apsidal-ended, built in 1862 by Peck and Stephens. It is decorated with broad pilaster strips with blank panels; those on the upper floor have round heads. A projecting entablature divides the floors, with upper windows having balustrades over the cills and a similar entablature at impost level, with plain coved plaster ceiling above. The north end has a narrow upper gallery supported on iron columns with a central round-headed panel containing the city coat-of-arms. The south apsidal end has a raised stage with stepped and curved seating platforms behind, above which is a canted organ with elaborate wooden casing and exposed pipes.