Belsize Library

Belsize Library

A branch library built in 1937 to the designs of Gold and Aldridge, located on the inside corner of Antrim Road and Antrim Grove in Hampstead.

The building is constructed from red brick in English bond with artificial stone dressings. The pitched roof is covered with hand-made, taper-rolled Italian clay tiles, and windows are steel-framed. The surrounding area was originally paved with York stone right up to the kerb, which remains within the library's plot, though beyond this the pavement has been replaced with standard concrete slabs.

The building is single-storey but double-height in plan, with a rectangular form and an apsidal end to the north-west facing Antrim Grove. A single-height, flat-roofed aisle wraps around three sides of the main library space, containing the entrance hall, children's library, offices, workrooms and conveniences. The roof is pitched behind a parapet.

The principal elevations face south-west and north-west. The south-west elevation, facing Antrim Road, features six clerestory windows lighting the double-height library space. Below these, the deep single-storey aisle steps forward, with the main entrance at the west end comprising a panelled double door with brass handles, surrounded by a stepped artificial stone architrave. The aisle has matching windows below the clerestory. The north-west elevation is the double-height apsidal end, featuring five tall windows subdivided into twenty-one panes. Above the central window, a relief panel set into the brickwork bears the Hampstead Borough Coat of Arms with the motto "NON SIBI SED TOTI", meaning "not for self but for all". With the exception of one replacement window to the rear and replacement of the two front steps with a ramp, the exterior remains unchanged.

Internally, the library floor is oak block, office floors are pine block, and the entrance hall and WCs are tiled. Interior joinery is oak. The majority of the joinery, floor and wall finishes, built-in furniture, and internal subdivision remain original.

Entry is through a small faience-tiled vestibule lit from above by a skylight, though the original floor tiles have been replaced. Double doors lead into a hallway. Two single doorways either side of a glazed internal window (originally with a metal grille) provide access into the main double-height library space, which formerly had a separate entrance and exit route past the issue desk, now lost.

The main library space runs the length of the building, lit by the double-height windows of the apse with curved plasterwork pelmets at their head, and the clerestory windows. The brass handles which originally slid up and down to operate the clerestory windows can still be found behind the backboards of the shelving units. The south-east corner opens into the lower, single-storey aisle space, which served as the children's library. Structural columns here are lined with wooden-framed notice boards, and windows have scalloped pelmets. Simple oak bookshelves line the walls, with some framed notice-boards. Shelves at the apse end have urn finials. The apse is lined with a large semi-circular banquette. Non-fixed library furniture has been renewed. Comparison with early photographs suggests the lower part of the bookcases and banquette have been altered to accommodate vents for a renewed heating system. Brass numbers from a wall-mounted clock remain, though the central hands have been replaced with a modern clock hanging in the centre.

Some alterations to shelving have occurred, including replacement of a card index cupboard and coat cupboard either side of the main entrance with shelving, and opening-up of deeper shelving to create a service hatch. The character of the space remains largely intact. The staff and service rooms have undergone modernisation with new sanitary-ware and a kitchen inserted, though some original doors remain and the "filing" room retains its fitted wooden shelves and units.