Westminster Reference Library

Westminster Reference Library was built between 1926 and 1928 for the City of Westminster to the designs of architect A N Prentice in a simple Edwardian Baroque style.

Materials and Construction

The building has Portland stone cladding over a London stock brick structure, with some glazed brick principally to the north elevation. Red brick and Portland stone are used for dressings, and the roof is covered in slate. Interior fixtures and fittings are mostly of oak.

Plan and Layout

The two library floors are served by a main stair at the north-west corner of the west-facing façade. Above the library are two former residential floors (used as offices in 2015) and an attic dwelling. These upper floors are accessed additionally from a secondary entrance at the north elevation, which leads to back stairs and a contemporary passenger lift. A book hoist is located at the south-east corner.

Exterior

The building is four storeys with a basement and attic. The third floor and attic are set back under a hipped roof with five dormers beneath gablets: four facing west and one to the south lighting the attic accommodation. Two further flat-roofed dormers project to the east and north. Two wide chimney stacks are located at the north side of the building, one central and the other an end stack to the east. The windows are a combination of metal-framed casements and timber sliding sashes.

West and South Elevations

The four-bay façade fronts St Martin's Street to the west and the three-bay south elevation fronts onto Orange Street. Both elevations share the same treatment. The basement has wide, segmental arch windows with enlarged keystones, terminating in a deeply moulded stone band and rusticated treatment. A continuous light well to the front of both elevations is defined by a cast-iron balustrade.

Above, the ground and first floors are executed in ashlar with deeply moulded panels to each bay. These contain tall, metal-framed casement windows: 12 glazes to the ground floor and 8 glazes to the first, both with margin lights. The ground floor windows have stone cills on scrolled brackets and a moulded pediment over. Between the first and second floors is a deep moulded cornice.

The second floor is simply treated. The centrally opening casement windows have stone surrounds and an enlarged keystone. The cornice above is topped by an open stone balustrade with a moulded coping. The third floor shares the simplicity of the second and, along with the attic, is recessed beneath the roof, providing a walkway around the west and south sides accessed by a French window on the west elevation.

The main entrance is in the northernmost bay of the façade. It is framed by two stone columns with capitals detailed with ovolo mouldings and egg and dart motifs. Above, a frieze is carved with the Westminster Coat of Arms and the Latin inscription 'CUSTODI CIVITATEM DOMINE' ('Guard the City O Lord'), surmounted by a pediment. Above this is a window with the words 'Public Library' carved in the stone apron. The two-leaf oak door, each leaf with three panels and a lion's head knocker, is approached by two steps. Between the second and third bay of the façade is an inscription noting that Sir Isaac Newton lived in a house on this site.

North Elevation

The northern elevation fronts Longs Court. It has a stock brick plinth. The ground and first floors above are clad with white-glazed brick, terminating in the moulded cornice between the first and second floors which wraps around from the façade. Above, the elevation is of stock brick with red brick dressings. The secondary entrance is central to the ground floor and has a moulded stone surround and flat hood on two stone corbels. The two-leaf door is partly glazed with rectangular lights over. The windows are irregularly spaced.

East Elevation

The east elevation is mostly blind, with a wide end-stack to the north.

Interior

Entrance and Main Stairs

The vestibule to the entrance hall leading to the main stairs is flanked internally by two oak-framed, part-glazed booths. That to the left is the former Porter's lodge and to the right was originally a lodge for umbrellas and shoes. The original floor covering here is marble mosaic, covered with linoleum; it remains exposed in the booths.

The stone, cantilevered, open-well stairs have a wrought-iron balustrade with a bronze handrail. The walls to the staircase and landings have moulded oak panels and dado rails. The landings have a moulded frieze supported by two pilasters and one central column constructed with a composite stone, with variant ionic capitals. The floor covering to all landings was originally a marble composition known as 'biancola', likely to remain beneath the linoleum. On the second floor landing is a wall plaque commemorating the occupants of Newton's house.

In general, the oak doors, their architraves and other joinery are original.

Library Floors

Two-leaf oak, part-glazed doors lead off the landing into the ground floor and first floor libraries. Both library floors have wide-panelled coffered ceilings supported on square-section columns and pilasters incised with linear and simple Greek key motifs. Both floors have wall shelving which may be original.

The ground floor library has an oak gallery on the east wall (accommodating the Pavlova Memorial Library), supported with oak columns and capitals of the Tuscan order, with an oak balustrade of turned newels and a hand rail. On the first floor, galleries of the same style are against the east and north walls. The wall stacks to the galleries are original, but all other furniture is modern and mostly free standing.

At the south-east corner is the book hoist with an oak, panelled door and a moulded oak architrave. The caged cabin within is likely to have been replaced.

To the north-east of the ground floor library is a staff office with some original fittings. A separate entrance leads from the office to the back stairs, accessed at the ground floor from the secondary entrance on Longs Court. This stone dog-leg stair is simpler, denoted as a service stair in Prentice's drawings, but also has a wrought-iron balustrade and bronze handrail. Adjacent to the service stair is a passenger lift, illustrated on the original plans and therefore contemporary.

Residential Floors

The primary access to the second, third floors and attic is via the service stairs and passenger lift, although the main stairs provide access to all floor levels. On both the second and third floors, simple plaster cornices, ceiling mouldings and joinery remain.

The second floor comprised the caretaker's flat arranged along the west and north sides of the building, with book storage above the library floors and a telephone room to the east inserted in the 1950s. Although remodelled to form offices and an arts reference room, simple fire surrounds and joinery remain in the former residential rooms and kitchen. The book storage area has modern metal stacks.

The third floor comprised four bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room and drawing room, converted into offices (by the time of the inspection in September 2015), but retaining the original layout arranged around a central corridor with a panelled ceiling and simple decorative plasterwork. In most rooms fire surrounds remain, one having colourful tiling, presumably from a nursery. The attic space, a separate residential flat, was not accessible.

Basement

Accessed via a secondary stair to the south of the main vestibule, the basement retains many original fixtures and fittings. The stairs, remodelled at the lowest flight, are of terrazzo. A partly glazed oak screen and door led into the mess room as identified on the plans. The book storage area has modern shelving and a glass mezzanine floor; the latter was inserted in the 1950s, but was envisaged as part of the 1920s design. The flooring is parquet. The vaulted cellars to Newton's house are accessed from the basement and were partially flooded in 2015. They are not mapped as their true extent was not apparent at the time of inspection.