The Bishop Wilson Memorial Library

The Bishop Wilson Memorial Library is a primary school library constructed between 1983 and 1986, designed by the architects Colin St John Wilson and partners. The building demonstrates group value through its contribution to the architectural landscape of the school and its connection to the local community.

The library is primarily constructed from banded red brick laid in a Flemish bond pattern, featuring mortar coloured to match. The roof is covered with tapered slate and lead, while the interior features a steel frame supporting a pressed steel panel canopy below the library lantern. Windows are timber-framed throughout, with the lantern itself using powder-coated aluminium.

The library is circular in plan and connected to the school's south elevation by a small rectangular vestibule. The single-story drum-shaped library extends from the school's south elevation, continuing the existing brick plinth. It is topped with a truncated conical roof of graded and tapered slates and a cylindrical lantern featuring alternating fixed and casement windows, culminating in a slate and lead cone with a pinnacle.

The circular library is linked to the school's south range by a short vestibule, which provides a corridor between the south range and the library. The vestibule's west side has a dwarf wall in stretcher bond brickwork with fixed glazing above, while the east side contains a door leading to the school playground. A wooden panel on the northwest brick pier lists teachers from 1947 to 1968 who held university degrees. Above the library's double doors, a memorial plaque commemorates the building's dedication to Bishop Wilson, its presentation to the Diocese of Chelmsford by former members of St Monica’s School in Clacton, and the architect's details. The red-painted double-leaf doors, each with a circular door light, open into a single circular space measuring 7.8 meters in diameter.

Inside, the doorway is emphasized by a simple pedimented door frame. Four rectangular reading desks radiate from the central space, terminating against the outer wall below square four-light fixed windows. Original seating includes three-legged plywood stools, alongside newer stools in mixed materials. Curving shelves fill the wall spaces between the desks, and display boards are mounted between the windows. Portable shelving blocks currently stand on the desk ends. The door frame, desks, shelves, and wall coverings around the display boards are painted bright yellow. Bright red-painted columns rise from the ends of the desks, supporting the lantern above. Additional steel members rise from each desk, carrying a horizontal frame with strip lights above each desk and supporting the central pressed-steel canopy, which was purpose-made by a boat-builder in Harwich. The canopy forms an inner dome, a truncated octagon with an oculus – each blue-painted panel is pierced with circles forming a zodiac constellation pattern.