Hertford Library

Hertford Library

Library, built as a public library and art school in 1888–90. Designed by architect Sir Reginald Blomfield for Hertford Borough Council. The building is constructed of orange brick laid to English bond with ornamental timber-framing and plaster above. It features an old tiled roof with a studded gable facing south, twin tile-hung gables to east and west, and a red brick chimney with oversailing courses.

The exterior displays a mixture of Old English revival and Queen Anne styles across two storeys with an attic within the south gable. The south elevation features a central break forward rising from a substantial plinth with moulded brick top. To the left is a single 6-light timber mullion and transom window with leaded glazing in metal casements; a similar window appears in the centre to the left of the entrance. The entrance doorway in the right centre has twin leaf doors with two glazed upper panels and raised and fielded lower panels, set within a bold architrave surround broken by a keyblock, with a flat hood on profiled console brackets. Above the doors is a fanlight with four leaded lights in two pairs, flanked and centrally divided by baluster columns with Ionic capitals. Immediately below runs a continuous pulvinated wood frieze and cornice around the perimeter of the building above the head of the ground-floor windows. The first floor displays ornamental studwork and plaster with rectangular panels left and right, elaborate arcading in the centre, and further arcading in the gable above. A 14-light mullion and transom window with leaded glazing lights the first floor. Moulded eaves cornice and bargeboards to the gable carry a finial bearing a weather vane.

The left-hand (west) elevation has a similar ground floor with four windows and frieze. The first floor contains studwork in square panels with two large 18-light mullion and transom windows set above twin studwork arches. These windows cut through the eaves cornice into twin tile-hung gables above. Elaborate rainwater heads with boxes topped with rolled embattled lead and ogival lead hoppers complete this elevation.

Between the right-hand pair of ground-floor windows on the south elevation is a South African (Boer) War Memorial: a recessed limestone panel engraved with the names of all volunteers from the Borough, featuring a carved hart in a circular surround. The outer limestone surround has a splayed sill, moulded jambs, and a trefoil head with Gothic worked dripmould.

The interior contains a dogleg main staircase with brick lower supports, stone balusters and railing that curve and ramp upwards. A swelling squat Ionic column supports the landing, beneath a wood-cased beam with pulvinated frieze. The staircase features stone steps, timber newels with elongated conical caps, painted softwood balusters of vase-on-column pattern, and a bold moulded hardwood handrail. The arcaded first-floor landing is supported by Tuscan pillars with urn bases.

The main library on the ground floor is divided into four bays by cased beams with coved mouldings. The first-floor rooms formerly served as the Art School.

The foundation stone was laid on 9 August 1888 by A.P. McMullen, Mayor of Hertford. An external stone tablet records the planting of an oak tree (long since removed) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.