Passmore Edwards Library

The following building shall be added:

TQ 48 SW PLASHET GROVE (north side) 251-/4/10004 Passmore Edwards Library (former)

II

Public library, now registry office. 1898-9 by Silvanus Trevail. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof with three-stage cupola bearing clock. Two storeys, with gabled attic over entrance bay. Three bays, the outer bays with five-light mullion and transom windows under parapets sporting trefoil headed panels. Central entrance composed like a Diocletian window, pair of blue marble Ionic columns carrying arch, spandrels with bas-reliefs of seated figures with scroll and book. Aprons of first-floor windows inscribed in raised letters 'PASSMORE EDWARDS PUBLIC LIBRARY'. Gabled two-storey returns with windows at first and attic storey. Lower rear section contains reading room (low projecting bay on east side originally contained the ladies' bay). Interior contains a hammerbeam roof to rear reading room. The first and attic storeys originally housed the chief librarian. Opened by Herbert Gladstone, MP, 30 November 1899. Largely paid for by John Passmore Edwards, philanthropist and proprietor of the Building News, who promoted libraries in the poorer parts of London. This is an uncommonly richly decorated example of his patronage in a suburban area. Source: Building News, 11 November 1898.

Listing NGR: TQ4194584280