The Old Library, Dulwich College

The Old Library at Dulwich College is a memorial library, now used as meeting rooms and classrooms, built in two phases between 1902 and 1910. Designed by Edwin T. Hall, it commemorates Old Alleynians who died in the South African War. A lower rectangular block to the rear, added in 1910 by E. Stanley Hall to honour Canon James Carver, the school’s first headmaster after its refoundation, completes the structure. This rear section, linked by a narrow passage, was gifted by the banker Henry Yates Thompson.

The library is constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings and copings, with slate roofs except for the copper dome over the rotunda at the southern end. Its design is a five-bay composition featuring Ionic columns that project prominently over buttressed plinths, supporting a heavy cornice, volute brackets, and a scalloped parapet. The rotunda, which projects to the south, has round-arched mullioned windows with heavy transoms across the thick cornice. A stone dado runs continuously through prominent buttresses with volute stops and a deep stone base, unifying the building’s two sections. Historic leadwork remains in the replaced window glazing. The main entrance, situated in the fourth bay from the north, features double doors set under a segmental pediment that rises to a shallow dome; an original iron bootscraper is incorporated into the design. Stacks are located at either end of the main ridge, disguised behind aediculed and pedimented niches. A timber cupola sits centrally above the copper dome. A statue of Justice, by H.C. Fehr, is positioned over the rotunda’s buttress, seemingly in commemoration of a British victory. A memorial located at the northern end commemorates the nine Old Alleynians who died in 1899-1902.

The interior maintains a barrel vault, oak panelling, and original fireplaces featuring massive volute brackets and modillion mouldings beneath projecting flues topped with the school crest. The Carver Room is square, with a box cornice and a shallow saucer dome above fitted cupboards and panelling.