Former Library To Battersea Polytechnic Institute

The former library of Battersea Polytechnic Institute was designed by E W Mountford in 1909 as an addition to the adjacent college building. This symmetrical single-storey building, styled in the manner of Sir Christopher Wren, is five bays wide and constructed of red brick with stone dressings. The bays are defined by a stone-banded Doric pilaster order, with the central bay being advanced and featuring a pair of stone Ionic pilasters. These support an entablature with an open segmental pediment that frames a large round-headed window with leaded lights, which is adorned with a console-keystone and cartouche above. Each of the recessed lateral bays contains a flat-headed sash window with a stone architrave, topped by a bull's-eye window framed in a garland. A high parapet with stone coping conceals a half-hipped tiled roof.