Former Guildhall Library And Museum

This former public library and museum, now adapted as a reception chamber and archive depository, was built between 1870 and 1872 by Sir Horace Jones (1819–1887), Architect and Surveyor to the Corporation of London. It is designed in the Perpendicular Gothic Revival style.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of rough-faced Kentish Ragstone masonry with Bath Stone dressings. The roofs are covered with slate and lead.

Plan

The building has internal entrances on its west side from the Guildhall, and a public (and ceremonial) entrance from Basinghall Street to the east. The former library occupies a rectangular church-like chamber aligned north–south, with a secondary chamber (the former reading room) to the south and other rooms (the former committee room and former clock room) and entrance to the east. The former museum is housed in a large undercroft-like basement, reached via stone stairs in the south-east corner.

Exterior

The principal elevations face north and east onto Basinghall Street; the other elevations are hidden by the Guildhall to the west and the Guildhall Art Gallery to the south.

The irregular east elevation features a gabled bay to the south with a canted bay window: a ten-light mullion and transom window at ground floor level, and a fifteen-light window at upper floor level with trefoil-headed arches at the top. A crenellated parapet sits above, with a coped gable adorned with carved animal finials; similar carving appears on the hopper head. The lower entrance bay has a moulded arched entrance flanked by paired shafts and bestial label-stops. The outer arch bears a painted inscription in Lombardic letters reading 'THE FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OF THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON'. Above is an arched window with a pair of cusped lights.

The north-facing recessed return has cusped lights set beneath hood-moulds at ground and first floor levels. The east elevation continues behind a low stone wall with a pair of cusped four-light windows at each floor. Next to these is a projecting ten-light mullion and transom window at each floor with crenellation at mid- and upper-height beneath a parapet faced with blind tracery. A pair of mansard louvres sits at attic height beneath a lead-covered roof with cast iron cresting to the ridge. A tall stone chimney with a crenellated top rises behind.

The next section to the north comprises a three-bay, three-stage elevation with buttresses. Triple lights at the lower floor are set within a four-centred arched hood-mould. The central section features three arched recesses with cusped arches, flanking columns and crocketed finials above. Inside each recess, standing on an octagonal plinth with foliate capital, is a statue of a queen representing Elizabeth I, Anne, and Victoria. Above are arched windows with triple Perpendicular lights. The recessed upper stage has triforium lights to the former library.

A two-storey projection in the angle of the return has single-light windows at the upper floor, with an angle buttress adjoining. The north elevation features a triple window at the upper chamber of two orders, with triple cusped lights to the centre and paired lights to the sides, with a crenellated transom set below depressed arched hood-moulds; similar lights appear at the lower chamber. The crenellated parapet rises to the centre with a frieze band of blind tracery. The recessed gable end at the upper stage has a moulded stone chimney to the centre. A recessed link to the west adjoins a post-war extension.

Interior

The entrance to the west is via a staircase set beneath two moulded arches, leading to a pair of double doors set within stone arched surrounds with hood moulds and blind tracery to the spandrels. The north side has a six-light Perpendicular window (the easternmost light is blind) with an arched double door at the centre. The north entrance is via an arched door at the end of a passage.

The main library chamber is a seven-bay aisled hall measuring 100 feet by 65 feet and 50 feet high to the centre. It has arcades of slim stone piers and traceried timber trusses to the roof, with three louvres to the central ridge. At the east end is a stained glass window by Ward & Hughes depicting scenes from the history of printing in London: Caxton's press at Westminster (upper register) and Bishop de Bury of Durham buying Abbot of St Albans' library (lower register), flanked by early printers and London writers. Below is a long fireplace of d'Aubigny stone with carved heads of Carpenter (founder of City of London School) and Chaucer. A frieze of painted tiles showing a procession of arts and sciences was not present at the time of inspection.

The timber roof springs from carved beasts bearing the arms of the principal City companies, together with those of the Royal Family and the City of London. The spandrels of the arcade are decorated with carved high-relief portrait heads set within tracery, emblematic of the arts and sciences: History (Stow and Camden), Poetry (Shakespeare and Milton), Printing (Gutenberg and Caxton); Architecture (William of Wykeham and Wren), Sculpture (Michelangelo and Flaxman), Painting (Holbein and Hogarth); Philosophy (Bacon and Locke), Law (Coke and Blackstone), Medicine (Harvey and Sydenham); Music (Purcell and Handel), Astronomy (Galileo and Newton), Geography (Columbus and Raleigh), Natural History (Linnaeus and Cuvier) and Botany (Ray and Gerrard). The side windows at triforium level are decorated with mottoes from Shakespeare. Richly carved stairs lead to a modern gallery on either side.

At the south-west is a double door within a moulded stone arched frame with a framed brass inscription panel above. The southern end has a large central door surround with a hood mould, blind tracery decoration to the spandrels, and double timber doors. Stone chimneypieces flank on either side: the one on the east side is inscribed in Gothic lettering 'Anno domini MDCCCLXXII', and the one to the west reads 'Domine dirige nos'.

The former reading room to the south has an open timber part-glazed roof and a pair of four-centred arched chimneypieces on the south side, with arched door surrounds at either end. The former hall (later Clock Room) with an open timber roof lies to the east of the former library at the top of the stairs, entered via an arched, glazed wooden screen. The Committee Room to the north has a stone fireplace and is now entered via a groin-vaulted entrance hall off Basinghall Street (but was formerly entered directly from the library).

Stairs to the former museum are located in the south-east corner. A fifteen-light stained glass window bears the arms of City companies. The open-well stone staircase has a stone fretted balustrade and a wooden roof. A triple cusped window with Gothic ironwork runs along the bottom flight of stairs. At the foot is an arched opening (blocked at the time of inspection leading into the former museum in the crypt), carried on an octagonal pier with a foliate capital to the right.

The former museum in the crypt is a six-bay aisled undercroft with long cast-iron beams carried on piers with foliate capitals, forming part of the original fire-proof construction system. Narrow stone stairs lead from the north-west of the upper chamber, with a stone fretted balustrade widening to the bottom. Architectural items from 17th-century demolished City buildings are on the south wall, hidden behind later shelving.

Subsidiary Features

Affixed to the south wall of the former museum are a number of large items from the former Guildhall Museum collections: a plaster Stuart coat of arms from Wren's St Michael Bassishaw (demolished 1899); the sign of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap (1668); and the sign of the Bull and Mouth coaching inn, a striking Mannerist relief carving of a huge mouth swallowing an ox with accompanying verse. In the western vestibule are statues of Sir John Cass (bronze, by Roubiliac, from Sir John Cass's Foundation), Charles II and Sir John Cutler (both Portland Stone, by Arnold Quellin, from the former College of Physicians in Warwick Lane).

History

The Corporation of London set up a committee to consider a new library and museum in 1869. Building work started in 1870 and the new premises were opened in November 1872 by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Selborne. The contractors were Trollope & Sons; the stained glass was by Ward and Hughes, and the carving by J.W. Seale. The sides of the library were formerly lined with bookstacks, and the long chamber to the south served as the reading room.

The library suffered bomb damage in 1940–41, and Sir George Gilbert Scott oversaw the restoration. The collections having outgrown the Victorian premises, the library was transferred to the new Guildhall Library in 1974, at around which time the new Museum of London (opened 1976) assumed the role of the Guildhall Museum. The racking inside the crypt dates from around 1960. The former library was adapted for use as a reception chamber, with the book bays being taken out around 1975. The former museum was filled with shelving and used as an archive depository, with shelving being installed around 1960.

The building forms an integral part of this highly important civic ensemble. Despite the loss of its fittings, it remains a High Victorian public building of very high quality.