St George The Martyr Library

St George the Martyr Library is a library built between 1897 and 1899 by architects CJ Phipps and Arthur Blomfield Jackson for Passmore Edwards. It is constructed of red brick and terracotta, topped with a pitched, tiled roof, and showcases an Art Nouveau style. The building has a rectangular plan and stands two storeys over a basement, featuring a dormer window on the east side.

The main facade features a double-height central porch that creates a symmetrical appearance, although the eastern half of the building has an attic floor, which is reflected in the varying window spacings. The upper part of the porch is clad in terracotta and displays a relief of St George slaying the dragon within a shaped gable. Below this is a large, two-light, trefoil-headed window with tracery, which is topped by an elaborately designed terracotta plaque that reads 'Passmore Edwards Public Library 1898' above the main entrance. Inside the porch, there is a bronze plaque commemorating Sir William Molesworth, created by Sir George Frampton. A similar plaque in memory of Henry Austen Layard, an Assyriologist and former MP for Southwark, was stolen in 1990.

The ground floor is decorated with pilasters, which are capped by corner buttresses adorned with blind tracery above the eaves. There is a second segmental-arched entrance on the right wing. The left return features a shaped gable filled with shallow terracotta reliefs that echo the motifs found on the main elevation, along with a broad segmental-arched, multi-light window with transoms, where the upper windows have leaded lights and the lower windows are sash. The wall below is pilastered between the corner buttresses. The right return is simpler in design but still includes a shaped gable and traceried buttresses. The interior has not been inspected.