Passmore Edwards Library

TQ 48 SW 251/4/10053 03-APR-00

STIRLING ROAD Plaistow (North side) Passmore Edwards Library NORTH STREET Plaistow (East side) Passmore Edwards Library

II

Public Library. 1902 by Samuel Bridgman Russell for the benefactor Passmore Edwards. Stock London brick with red brick principal fronts laid in English bond with stone detailing; roofs clad with bituminous felt. Cruciform plan. EXTERIOR: entrance front to west of one storey. Tripartite elevation defined by projecting canted piers with stone banding, each with one concave surface. Dado of glazed red tiles. Centre bay with high arched cornice with modillions under which is full-height projecting stone centrepiece containing doorway and an upper 3-light transomed window. Heavily rusticated quadrant surround. Moulded panel over door with inscription: PASSMORE EDWARDS/PVBLIC LIBRARY. Triple keystone over upper window. Side bays each with 3 centre-hung one-light casements. Modillion cornice and low parapet with stone coping. Flat roof with central dome. South and north fronts of similar design, with the centrepiece replaced by a single 3-light double transomed window set within a rusticated projecting surround. INTERIOR: central glazed dome with cast-iron ribs carried on plain pendentives with a pulvinated string course with foliage carving. Pendentives drop to Corinthian entablatures supported on 4 panelled square piers, creating square secondary areas in the 4 corners with flat ceilings. Cruciform arms under segmental barrel vaults. Timber partitioning on south side added c. 1970, remainder of partitioning of 1989.