The Old Library, Dulwich College

SOUTHWARK

TQ3373 COLLEGE ROAD 636-1/15/232 (South side) 21/01/94 The Old Library, Dulwich College

GV II

Memorial library, now meeting room and classrooms. 1902-3 and 1910. By Edwin T Hall as a memorial to those formerly of Dulwich College (Old Alleynians) killed in the South African War. Lower addition to rear of 1910 by E Stanley Hall in tribute to Canon James Carver, first head of the school on its refoundation. Lower rectangular block to rear with narrow link the gift of the banker Henry Yates Thompson. MATERIALS: red brick with Portland stone dressings and copings, slate roofs save for copper dome over rotunda at southern end of rectangular double-height main library. EXTERIOR: the library is a 5-bay composition with Ionic columns standing proud over attached buttressing plinths and supporting a heavy cornice, volute brackets and scalloped parapet. These curves are contrasted with round-arched mullioned windows each with a heavy transom along the line of the thick cornice of the 5-bay rotunda projecting to the south. Stone dado carrying through prominent buttresses with volute stops and deep stone base emphasise the continuity of the composition through the two elements of the building. The glazing has been replaced but retains the historic leading. Entrance in 4th bay from north of main range, with double doors under segmental pediment rising behind to a shallow dome. Iron bootscraper a part of the original work. Stacks at either end of the main ridge disguised behind aediculed and pedimented niches. Timber cupola in centre and over copper dome. Figure of Justice over buttress of rotunda by HC Fehr, presumably in commemoration of the British victory. Memorial at northern end to the nine Old Alleynians killed in 1899-1902. The Carver Room has stone pedimented ends with triglyph frieze over Roman Doric columns flanking tripartite windows. INTERIOR: the library retains its barrel vault, oak panelling and chimneypieces with massive volute brackets and modillion mouldings under projecting flues topped with the school crest. The interior of Carver Room is square, with a box cornice and shallow saucer dome over fitted cupboards and panelling. (Piggot JR: Dulwich College).

Listing NGR: TQ3313373080