Hornsey Library

Hornsey Library

A public library built between 1963 and 1965 by F Ley and G F S Jarvis of Hornsey Municipal Borough, with A J Fowler, former Principal Assistant Architect, under G A Pentecost, Borough Engineer and Surveyor. W V Zinn and Associates served as structural engineers. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete with large panel pre-cast concrete cladding and brick facings. The pre-cast panels incorporate white cement and Derby spa aggregate finished with a raised pattern. The building is two storeys with a basement, featuring flat roofs except over the exhibition hall, which has a 'V'-shaped roof incorporating a clerestory.

The central entrance hall contains the adult lending library to the left, a double-height space with a gallery. To the right is a central courtyard, with the former periodical and information room (now children's library) to the front and the former children's library with its own entrance beyond. Offices occupy the rear. Above are the main reference and reading room and an exhibition cum lecture hall served by foyer and coffee bar, with a seating store beyond. Large basement stack rooms include a corner room for children's story-hours reached by its own staircase. A travelling library dock is positioned at the side of the building.

Externally, the building features aluminium double-glazed windows and columns clad with polished granite. Double glass doors in aluminium surrounds mark the entrance beneath a large porch formed by the curved wall of the projecting reference library above. This dominating curved element is windowless, faced in brick, with clerestory glazing in panelled side walls. The ground floor has continuous glazing to either side, with high vertical windows facing the street serving the main lending library. The central courtyard is filled with curtain-walled glazing in aluminium frames. A large plaque beside the entrance records the opening of the library on 7 March 1965 by Princess Alexandra. To the right of the entrance is a mosaic panel. Adjoining the west wall is a bronze sculpture by T E Huxley-Jones depicting an attenuated figure set in a pool with a curtain of water jets. Huxley-Jones also devised the curved curtain wall behind, inset with bronzes depicting a plan of the borough and the medieval tower of Hornsey church.

Internally, floors are of vinyl tiles. Staircase treads in the entrance hall and adult lending library are of pre-cast terrazzo. Doors and frames are of utile, with original shelving surviving in blockboard faced with plastic laminates and supported by "Vizusell" fittings. These survive particularly well in the reference library, featuring red vertical ends, black strip fronts and grey and green back walls, with staggered 'V' shaped lines of fixed desks. Staircases have glass and aluminium balustrades with black handrails, and the main staircase hall retains original pendant globes and black conoid wall lights. Adjoining the head of the main staircase and overlooking the garden court is an engraving depicting Hornsey past and present from the church tower of 1500 to the new library, designed by Frederick J Mitchell ARCA. The courtyard contains a pool and long fixed concrete bench. The meeting room foyer features a timber coffee bar with timber ends incorporating concealed doors to the meeting and exhibition room, which can be partitioned into two if required. The Chief Librarian's office retains its original pendant light.

The library was designed with wit and vivacity to impart a sense of energy and modernity to reading and cultural events, conceived on a grand scale to give a sense of spaciousness even at busy times. Built to replace an 1899 library that could not accommodate 100,000 books, it was the last building erected by Hornsey Municipal Borough before its incorporation into the London Borough of Haringey in April 1965. As a civic gesture in the centre of a large residential area, it is particularly successful, its artworks commemorating the borough through four hundred years of history. The building was widely praised by library professionals, with the Library Association Record noting in April 1965 that it demonstrated how a successful working library emerges from close cooperation between a librarian focused on delivering books to readers and an architect who appreciates the complexities of that straightforward demand.