Former Wormholt Library and Infant Wel fare Centre

This former public branch library and Infant Welfare Centre was designed in 1930 by R Hampton C. Lucas, Engineer and Surveyor for the Borough of Hammersmith. It was built to serve the Old Oak and Wormholt districts and opened on 16 July 1930, overlooking Western Avenue (A40) at the edge of the London County Council and Hammersmith Council Wormholt estate, which was laid out between 1919 and 1926 following garden city principles.

Architecture and Materials

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with red gauged brick and stone dressings, stock brick in parts, a copper-clad cupola, and flat roofs behind brick parapets. The exterior features red brick parapets with moulded brick cornices, vertical panels and pilasters at the angles. Mouldings are of gauged brick, and window openings are of quarter-moulded brick.

Plan and Layout

The single-storey building sits on a rectangular footprint with the library to the north and the Welfare Clinic to the south. The library is arranged around a central atrium, with the former Lending Library to the east, Reading Room to the west, and Reference Room to the south. To the west of the Reference Room was a filing room, and to the east a staff room overlooking an inner courtyard built in stock brick. The large east and west library rooms have substantial bays facing their respective directions.

The Infant Welfare Centre has entrances on the east and west elevations leading to a central corridor. There is a public waiting room to the east and former doctors' and nurses' rooms on the west side. The central room served as a weighing room, with a dispensary opposite. A healing chamber was located in the basement, reached by external steps.

Exterior Detail

The entrance front presents a symmetrical composition with the main entrance set back under a stone portico of paired Tuscan columns in antis on shallow stone bases with a stone flag floor, positioned between the wings of the library rooms. The entablature is inscribed "PUBLIC LIBRARY". The parapet above is formed of stepped square-cut blocks, with the centrepiece carved with the Borough arms. A pair of part-glazed oak doors sit within a reeded architrave, flanked by eight-pane fixed lights above stone commemorative plaques.

Windows throughout are small-paned horned sashes. On the north elevation these are arranged as tripartite windows with six-over-six pane sashes flanking a central nine-over-nine pane sash. The east and west elevations each feature a large semicircular bay with curved six-over-six and twelve-over-twelve pane sashes between piers with horizontal tile caps and bases and raised panels below. A copper-clad cupola with small-paned oculi and a copper finial sits over the central hall, set behind a parapet of solid masonry with brickwork laid diagonally on the cardinal faces, brick piers at the corners and stone balustrades between. Urn finials that formerly stood on the angles of both parapets are said to be in storage.

A staff entrance is located on the east elevation, featuring a timber canopy on moulded brackets and a part-glazed door under a plain fanlight, flanked by piers of alternating horizontal tile and brickwork. A similar entrance leads to the library staff rooms, with a fanlight containing glazing bars.

The Infant Welfare Centre to the south is a lower flat-roofed building with a simplified brick parapet that has tall inscribed brick panels over the entrances. Windows are set in plain brick openings under brick arches with stone or concrete sills, and are small-paned timber sashes and casements. The east entrance has a flat-roofed brick porch with moulded cornices to the flanks and a tiled architrave with stone roundels at the angles enclosing a narrow moulded stone or concrete frame. Above the entrance a stone panel is inscribed "Infant Welfare Centre". The door has been replaced. The west entrance has a timber canopy on moulded brackets and a part-glazed door under a plain fanlight, flanked by piers of alternating horizontal tile and brickwork.

Interior: The Library

The central hall is lined with pilasters with egg and dart mouldings supporting a deep moulded cornice, above which is a clerestory with alternating raised panels and rectangular windows with rectangular and diagonally set glazing bars. The pilasters between have vertical moulded husk decoration. Above is a lantern with a moulded frieze and panelled linings, glazed in small rectangular clear panes with bands of patterned coloured glass.

Architraves have wide shallow square-cut mouldings typical of the period. Doors, overlights and internal partitions are of oak with glazed panels, some now fitted with mirror glass. Skirtings and plinths are of polished buff stone. The floor, which extends into the lobby, is of cream marble or polished stone with a black perimeter and inner circle enclosing a star.

The Lending Room to the east has a flat circular roof light with a moulded bay leaf frieze and glazing bars, a shallow cornice, picture rail and skirtings, and plain door architraves. The former Reading Room to the west is said to be similar. The former Reference Room is plainly detailed.

Interior: Infant Welfare Centre

The doctors' and nurses' rooms flanking the entrance to the west have moulded dado rails, coved cornices, and splayed skirtings to woodblock floors. The nurses' room has fitted panelled cupboards. Rooms are separated by part-glazed small-paned doors and internal windows.

Ancillary Features

The building is enclosed by iron railings and gates, some of which on the east side are original. It is framed on the north by gates set between brick piers with moulded caps and ball finials. Plain brick gatepiers with tile banding lead to the Welfare Centre.

Historical Context

During the inter-war period, libraries were increasingly built as part of civic complexes rather than alongside traditional high street buildings such as public baths or town halls. Wormholt Library, as a branch library, represents a new approach of taking public services to newly built suburbs. This building was the only community building on the Wormholt estate, which comprises low-density housing of brick with tile roofs and small-paned timber windows laid out around greens. The inclusion of a purpose-built Infant Welfare Centre was an innovative move; such centres were sometimes built alongside libraries during this period.

In the early 20th century, local authorities established Milk Depots and other initiatives to reduce high infant mortality rates. The first Infant Welfare Centre in Hammersmith opened in 1911, followed by others over the next ten years, providing ante-natal and toddler clinics. Wormholt replaced the clinic on the Old Oak estate which was deemed unsuitable. This Infant Welfare Centre was among the first purpose-built centres in the country.

Hampton C. Lucas also designed the White City Lido in 1923, which is now demolished. The radial plan of the library reflects new trends in open-shelved library layout of the period.