Old Library Building

TQ 3172 963-/31/10008

KNIGHTS HILL Nos 14-6 (Old Library Building)

II

Adult education institute, formerly library. Designed in 1887 by R.J Smith and opened in 1888. Flemish style. Red brick in Flemish bond with Ham Hill stone dressings and some bands of roughcast. Mansard tiled roof and brick and stone chimneystacks.

Two storeys and attics, ten windows. Right hand portion is a symmetrical composition with three hipped dormers with casements. Central two storey loggia with elaborate swansneck pediment above with date in carved brick 1887. First floor has seven stone terms with busts of Homer, Sir Walter Scott, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens and Socrates and inscription in panels below reading "Free Public Library". Ground floor has four partly fluted and partly plain columns with Venetian-type capitals. Wings have two casements set in arches on first floors with terracotta cherubs above and aprons below. Ground floor has one four-light mullioned and transomed arched window. Plinth. Left-hand side is in matching style. One hipped dormer with casement, three casements to first floor, five-light window to ground floor and left side doorcase. This is one of the earliest free public libraries in central London.

Listing NGR: TQ3189472125