Former Public Library

Former Public Library

This former public library was built in 1893 to designs by Brightwen Binyon and opened in 1894. It adjoins the north side of the Town Hall and faces east onto West Stockwell Street.

The building is constructed of rich red brick laid in Flemish bond with dressings of dark timber, rubbed brick and terracotta, topped with a roof of small red clay tiles. It has an approximately rectangular plan with two parallel ranges: the public reading room to the north and a suite of private rooms to the south.

The two-storey library is rendered in picturesque neo-Jacobean style. A steeply pitched roof with a cross wing over the north range is surmounted by a decorative lantern. A tall panelled chimney stack with oversailing brick courses passes through the ridge of the main range.

The principal elevation is dominated by two gabled bays either side of the entrance. The entrance itself features a large doorcase with square pilasters resting on terracotta bases and plinths, and a plain terracotta frieze with a moulded pediment-within-a-pediment. The double-leaf door, set within a moulded terracotta semicircular keyed arch, has multiple raised and fielded panels surmounted by a pediment rising into a semicircular fanlight. Directly above is a small three-light wooden-framed window.

The bays on either side have a tall brick plinth pierced by basement openings with gauged brick arches and keystones embellished with ogee mouldings. The left gable takes the form of a double-height canted bay lit on both floors by eight-light casement windows with small square glazing bars in moulded wooden frames. Between the two rows of windows are four sgraffito panels bearing strapwork design. The gable head is a moulded wooden triangle filled with decorative sgraffito and the date 1893.

The right gable has a tall multi-light oriel window with small square panes and a central semicircular wooden glazing bar filled with heraldic stained glass. The oriel has a carved timber frieze and pedimented cornice, its base resting on a brick corbel carved with scroll design. The oriel's base bears five panels of delicately ornate sgraffito. Above the oriel, an eight-light window is flanked by wooden terms supporting a heavy entablature with carved capitals. The gable head contains more sgraffito in elegant strapwork design.

The north side elevation is divided into three bays by brick piers. Ground-floor basement openings have gauged brick arches. Along the top, immediately below the eaves, each bay is pierced by large nine-light windows in wooden frames lighting the public reading room. A slightly lower polygonal projection extends from the north-west corner, lit by smaller windows in the same style. A red brick wall behind this projection terminates in a tall panelled chimney stack with oversailing courses.

Interior

The entrance leads up a flight of steps through a double-leaf door with a fanlight of square-within-a-square design into a small entrance hall with moulded plaster ceiling and an elliptical arch recess with arches to each side; the right arch opens into the public reading room.

This large double-height space has a canted ceiling and elaborate Queen post roof truss in dark timber with moulded Queen posts and drop finials. The ceiling has a heavy cornice with dentil course and is divided by moulded timber ribs into square plaster panels decorated with strapwork. Painted panelling of small rectangular panels with moulded base and cornice lines the room up to a third of its height. The reading room is divided into five bays by recessed full-height elliptical arch panels of moulded plaster.

Along the south wall, the second and fourth bays are pierced by wide double-leaf doors with six moulded panels and glazed panels above, set within pedimented doorcases. The fifth bay is lit by a nine-light window with small square panes. Along the north wall, the first and second bays have been knocked through to create two doors, and the other bays are lit by nine-light windows. On the end wall is a large bas-relief by G Oldofredi of Milan depicting Queen Victoria opening the Great Exhibition of 1851, commissioned and donated by James Paxman, who is shown as a young man in the crowd. Flanking this are large stone plaques commemorating the erection and opening of the library.

The small annex on the north-east corner of the reading room has similar strapwork ceiling and panelling incorporating a corner fireplace with semi-circular arch inset.

To the left of the entrance hall the original floor plan has been altered to accommodate WCs at the front of the building. To the rear is a large room, probably the original stock-room now converted into a professional kitchen, retaining windows with top-opening panes in moulded frames along the rear west wall. A dogleg stair with stone steps and twisted iron balusters leads up to four first-floor rooms, presumably staff-rooms and offices used for running the library. The landing has moulded skirting board and dado rail, with five-panel doors leading into the four otherwise plain rooms.

An extensive basement running along the east side of the building has exposed brick walls painted white.