Plumstead Library

Plumstead Library

Public library, built 1903-04, designed by Frank Sumner.

The building occupies a corner plot with its principal elevation facing north onto Plumstead High Street. It is constructed in smooth red brick in Flemish bond with limestone dressings on the street-facing elevations, with rougher brick used at basement level and yellow stock brick on the rear. Windows are metal-framed.

The plan is rectangular with an extension on the south-east side (excluded from the listing), creating a courtyard garden on the south-west. The entrance opens into a central hall with the children's library (formerly the reading room) on the left and the main library (formerly the newspaper and magazines room) on the right. The porter's flat is situated above this section, with a basement below. A wide dogleg stair rises from the hall to access the open-plan hall at the rear, formerly the adult's lending library, which has the former reference library and museum on the first floor.

The principal north-facing elevation is a symmetrical three-bay composition of two storeys and basement. The central bay contains the front door, reached by four steps and set back behind a moulded stone architrave with a chamfered round arch and hood mould. The double doors are solid timber, each with six fielded panels. A brass panel records the building's origins. On either side are large bow windows of three tiers, each containing seven mullioned and transomed windows with nine-pane casements. Octagonal pilasters articulate the bays and terminate the elevations, topped with domed finials. A wide stone storey band inscribed "PUBLIC LIBRARY" with "1903" above the doorway runs across. On the first floor is a central three-light stone-mullioned window with three pairs of two-light windows to either side. An egg and dart moulded cornice sits beneath a balustrade parapet. A gablet rises from the central bay with a relief carving of the Woolwich Borough Council crest in the tympanum.

The return elevation facing east comprises three distinct sections. On the right is the gable end of the main front range with two large nine-light mullioned and transomed windows with nine-pane casements at ground floor, and three small, irregularly sized windows on the upper floor. The gable has moulded coping and stone dressings. The central section features a balustraded parapet with a ground-floor doorway in a flush stone surround with alternating quoins resembling a Gibbs surround, beneath a segmental arched hood mould. Four square nine-light casements with similar surrounds are positioned to the left, and a six-light mullioned and transomed window is on the first floor. Also on the first floor is a shallow arched opening with an iron grille decorated with scrollwork and the initials "WBC". The left section is a long, regularly composed seven-bay range that previously held the museum on the first floor. Bays are articulated by plain pilasters, each ground-floor bay containing a six-light mullioned and transomed window above a stone-clad plinth. The left-hand end bay has a round-arched doorway with a keystone and radiating fanlight, fitted with a pair of solid timber doors, each with three fielded panels. The wide storey band continues with brick rather than stone infill. The first floor is blind with marginal brick mouldings within each bay. An egg and dart cornice and blind brick parapet with stone copings finish the elevation. The single-storey extension on the left is excluded from the listing. The rear elevations are plainly detailed.

Internally, all walls are plastered with moulded detailing including cornices, picture rails, and skirtings. In the hall, shaped corbels support arched openings. A hipped lantern lights the central hall, and a large vaulted lantern lights the main library. In the children's library the architrave to a hatch to the porter's office remains. Glazed tops to partitions survive within the bay divisions, though the partitions themselves have been removed. The former adult lending library has a row of five columns with octagonal bases and moulded capitals; five square columns have been added subsequently. A number of original fielded panelled doors remain, as do most cast iron window fittings. Floors are herringbone-laid parquet in many rooms; some terrazzo survives in one set of toilets.

The dogleg stair, with modern handrails and tread coverings, rises to a first-floor lobby lit by a hipped lantern. A hatch leads into a small room, possibly originally a ticket office for the museum. The first floor is divided axially into three areas: the western portion was a reference library, now divided into three square rooms with plaster mouldings, deep cove ceilings and uplighting. A set of half-glazed panelled double doors with Art Nouveau-style handles opens to the central and eastern rooms. These were formerly the museum and are largely open plan; the central room contains illuminated tank-style display cabinets built into the walls. The porter's flat was not inspected.

The 1936 extension is not included in the listing.