Brentford Public Library

The Brentford Public Library, built in 1903, was designed by T.H. Nowell Parr, constructed by Joseph Dorey and Co., and funded by Andrew Carnegie for the Brentford District Council. The library is built of yellow stock brick in English bond, with terracotta dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof with tile ridges.

The building consists of a central two-storey block of three bays, flanked by single-storey wings. The design includes a plinth, sill band, frieze, and dentilled cornice to each floor. Rusticated quoins are present on the first floor, and hipped roofs are topped with decorative, finialled cupolas, along with tall corniced stacks. Windows have architraves, wooden or terracotta mullions and transoms, and small-pane sashes with overlights, some with round-arched glazing bars.

The front entrance features a projecting central bay with a wide segmental-arched entrance. This entrance has a four-panel door and overlight, flanked by glazed grey Ionic columns on prominent plinths supporting a segmental pediment displaying the date, benefactor's name, and the district’s coat of arms. Above is a three-light transomed window, with the central section being segmental-headed. Foundation stones are set below the ground-floor windows, while the first-floor windows feature corbelled architraves with friezes and dentilled cornices. The left wing has two two-light windows, with the cornice sweeping up to a ball finial. The right wing features a canted bay window with a parapet containing a small two-light window with a segmental pediment, flanking one-light windows, and a door within a corniced architrave.

The rear of the central block has a continuous first-floor window separated by pilaster buttresses rising from below the ground-floor cornice. The left wing has a door and three windows. The right wing features a transomed three-light window and a keyed oculus. A tower with a cupola-like roof is situated on the right. The left return has a wing with a canted bay window similar to that on the right, with a small two-light window contained within the parapet, flanked by one-light windows and a door in a corniced architrave.

The interior entrance hall has a tessellated floor displaying the coat of arms and a teak staircase with a coffered soffit, moulded balusters, newels, and finials. A Boer War memorial is located on the stair landing, framed by Ionic columns supporting a cornice and pediment displaying the coat of arms. The main library room has pilasters supporting corniced cross-members. The room above, originally a museum and lecture room, features corbelled trusses and a boarded ceiling. The right wing, formerly a newspaper reading room, has braced king-post trusses and a bronze portrait of Carnegie. The left wing, previously a reference library, has an arch-braced, collared, principal rafter roof.