Hendon Library

Hendon Library is a public library built in 1929 by architect T.M. Wilson for the Hendon Urban District Council. The building is constructed of red brick with extensive stone dressings and features a slate roof. It has a symmetrical two-storey plan, with a staircase located over the entrance lobby. The ground floor reading rooms have been merged together, and there is an addition at the rear.

The exterior features a central door set in a stone bolection-moulded surround, beneath a multi-pane window. The door is topped with a hood supported by moulded brackets and has a lintel adorned with a Latin inscription meaning "not the least part of learning is to be acquainted with good books," along with a relief of an open book. The entrance is flanked by two elongated, fluted columns in antis that support a stone entablature. The building has three bay side wings, with 6/6-pane sash windows in the side bays and a wider central bay that has rusticated quoins. This central bay features a 15/15-pane window in a moulded frame with an apron, a swan-neck pediment above with an urn, and is set against a shallow niche of cut brick. The building also has shallow pediments to the attics and a hipped roof with a square lantern at the center, which has a 12-pane window on each face beneath segmental pediments and is topped with a copper-sheathed ball and spike finial. The side elevations have five bays with dormers, and the rear extends wider. The back of the library was largely rebuilt during a campaign of alterations in 1973.

Inside, there is a wrought iron staircase over the entrance lobby. The main reading room has lost its original fittings, and the former children's library to the north has been combined with the main reading room. The first floor reference rooms feature glazed ceilings, and a mezzanine added during the 1973 alterations is located at the rear.

Hendon Library is a notable example of a Neo-Georgian public library and is part of a distinguished group of civic buildings constructed to serve this rapidly growing London suburb. The major alterations made in 1973 affected the interior but preserved the integrity of the building's frontage.