Carnegie Library, perimeter wall and gatepiers

Carnegie Library, perimeter wall and gatepiers

A large purpose-built library with gate piers and boundary walls, designed in 1906 by Wakeford and Sons and funded by Andrew Carnegie.

The main elevations and boundary walls are constructed of red brick in English bond and faced in faience tiles imitating ashlar, with terracotta dressings and mouldings. The roof is finished in Lakeland slate and copper. The building stands on a sloping corner site with the principal elevation facing north-east and is designed in Free Renaissance manner.

The building has an H-shaped plan with a central two-storey section containing the principal library rooms on the first storey with storage below, flanked by three-storey pavilions. The south-eastern wing contains offices on the ground floor and accommodation on the upper two storeys with private access. The north-western wing contains plant rooms on the ground floor and offices on the upper two storeys, served by a separate lift and stair.

The principal north-east elevation is symmetrical and comprises seven bays. The central bay has an elevated porch reached by steps, with a broken pediment and small segmental-headed gable above, flanked by a curved balustrade of vase balusters. The porch has two multi-paned metal windows either side of two Ionic columns and a central draped cartouche. The entrance itself has a round-headed stone architrave with central keystone projecting from rustication. The outer door is a twentieth-century metal sliding concertina type, but retains the original ornate metal overthrow bearing the name 'Carnegie Library' painted in white. The projecting end pavilions are similarly pedimented with large ornate segmental-headed mullioned windows flanked by coupled Ionic columns. Other bays have square-headed mullion and transom windows with enriched broken pediments flanked by Ionic pilasters. The roof is shallow, finished in slate behind a terracotta parapet, with two octagonal open-sided cupolas with bell-shaped roofs and tall finials on the ridgeline.

The north-western elevation has six bays. The first two bays form the pavilion return with two storeys and ashlar-style dressing to the ground floor, each with a later twentieth-century metal casement window to ground level and square-headed mullioned windows under pediments to the first floor. The next four bays are of three storeys, symmetrical apart from an entrance offset to the left with a stone hoodmould above. Windows are either round or square-headed with mullions and transomes and rectangular leaded lights. The outlying two bays project with pediments containing relief swags and eaves projecting over deep modillion cornices. The south-eastern elevation is similar but has twin central doors and simpler mullion and transom windows. The south-western rear elevation is plainer with some mullion and transom windows. The central roof is flat, punctuated by roof lights and hidden behind a brick parapet. Cast iron rainwater goods and shallow chimneys on gable ends complete the exterior.

Internally, the entrance lobby to the former library has glazed brick walls and a black and white ceramic tile floor. The inner hall is defined by Tuscan pilasters separated by tiled walls under a dado rail, with a rectangular leaded skylight featuring stained glass diamond and flower motifs set within a geometrically moulded ceiling. Three double entrance doors are painted timber, some panelled with ornate glazed upper panels and glazed margin panels. The doorcases are segmental-headed with scrolled pediments and dentil cornices to the main doors, with overlights above and leaded glass featuring tulip motifs. Single doors, some set into original glazed partitions, have similar architraves. A bronze commemorative panel to Carnegie mounted on the wall sits within a richly moulded mahogany cartouche. The floor throughout the main library is timber herringbone parquet.

The ground floor space of the main library to the rear is lavishly treated with a wide open space supported by Ionic columns enriched with swagged garlands. Circular and rectangular skylights with twentieth-century glass are set into a box-moulded ceiling. Two conference rooms with high ceilings and Tuscan pilasters but plainer detailing occupy the southern section. The northern section contains large rooms of similar style, with a stone stair featuring a tall straight steel balustrade and safety guard connecting the floors. The ground floor houses the wing entrance, utility rooms and a large store room with a terrazzo floor and passageways with tiled dados. An office includes a classically detailed fireplace surround with cast iron inset and a wall safe.

A low brick perimeter wall runs around the north-western, north-eastern and south-western sides of the site. It features brick piers with moulded caps and terracotta copings, connected by later wrought iron railings.