Brentford Public Library

The following building shall be added:-

Boston Manor Road TQ 1777 NE (East Side) 14/231 Brentford Public Library II GV

Library. 1903 by T H Nowell Parr, builder Joseph Dorey and Co; for Brentford District Council; benefactor Andrew Carnegie. Yellow stock brick in English bond with terracotta dressings; Welsh slate roof with tile ridges. 2 storey central block of 3 bays flanked by single-storey wings. Plinth; sill band; frieze and dentilled cornice to each floor; rusticated quoins to 1st floor; hipped roofs with decorative, finialled, cupolas; tall corniced stacks. Windows have architraves; wooden or terracotta mullions and transoms; and small-pane sashes and overlights, some upper lights with round-arched glazing bars. Entrance elevation: central block: projecting central bay has wide segmental-arched entrance with 4-panel door and overlight flanked by glazed grey Ionic columns on tall plinths supporting segmental pediment with date and benefactor's name and district's coat of arms above; 3-light transomed window above, the central lower light segmental-headed. Flanking windows on ground floor have foundation stones set below, and on 1st floor have corbelled architraves with friezes and dentilled cornices. Left wing has two 2-light windows; cornice sweeps up at left corner to ball finial. Right wing has canted bay window of 1, 2, 1 windows below parapet; 1-light flanking windows; ridge lantern. Rear: central block has continuous 1st floor windows separated by pilaster buttresses rising from below ground floor cornice; door and 3 windows to left wing; transomed 3-light window and keyed oculus to right wing; tower with roof as cupolas on right. Left return: wing, on right, has canted bay window as before, the parapet containing small 2-light window with segmental pediment; flanking 1-light windows, and door on left in corniced architrave. Inferior: entrance hall has tessellated floor with coat of arms; teak staircase with coffered soffit, moulded balusters and newels, and finials; on stair landing, marble Boer War memorial framed by Ionic columns supporting cornice and pediment with coat of arms. Main library room has pilasters supporting corniced cross-members; room above (formerly museum and lecture room) has corbelled trusses and boarded ceiling; right wing (formerly newspaper reading room) has braced king-post trusses and bronze portrait of Carnegie; left wing (formerly reference library) has arch-braced, collared, principal rafter roof.

Listing NGR: TQ1760977763

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 30 October 2017.