Leytonstone Library

Leytonstone Library

Leytonstone Library is a neo-Georgian building with Moderne interiors in the art-deco style, completed in 1934. It occupies a rectangular corner plot at the south-west junction of the High Road and Church Lane, with the main frontage facing north.

The exterior is constructed in red brick to the street elevations with Portland stone dressings, brown stock brick to the rear, and features steel Crittall windows with pantiles to the outer roof slopes and green copper cresting. The long principal north frontage is composed of a three-storey 9-bay central range set in a 4-1-4 arrangement, recessed behind a shallow balcony and flanked by 2-storey wings of three bays each. The central stone classical frontispiece consists of a coffered porch with paired Doric columns and entablature, with a balcony above featuring grouped Ionic columns and a dentilled cornice bearing the borough coat of arms. Windows to the central range have stone architraves, those to the first floor with dentilled cornices, whilst the smaller second-floor windows are plain. Windows to the end-bays are set within shallow recesses, the central windows with pedimented stone architraves and others with gauged brick arches. Stone urns mark the corners of the parapet. The symmetrical 7-bay eastern elevation is similarly detailed and bears a stone plaque inscribed "PUBLIC LIBRARY AD 1934" with the borough arms. The canted corner bay contains an entrance to the former electricity showroom with Doric columns and a pedimented window. False mansard roofs sit above all street elevations with flat roofs behind.

The ground floor is stone faced with plain piers and fascias. The western three bays of the north elevation retain an original bronze-framed Woolworth's shop front with granite stallrisers, curved glazing and glazed timber doors, following the standard Woolworth's design of the period. This is one of approximately ten known to survive nationally and is of considerable rarity. Other shop fronts have been replaced.

The plan is aligned east-west with a central entrance to the north. A small lobby leads through to a vestibule and stair dividing into two flights ascending to the first-floor central entrance hall. The entrance hall is octagonal in shape with corridors to either side and a small lobby to the south. Described anti-clockwise, the rooms comprise the main lending library to the south-east, a linked study room to the south, a librarian's office (now a meeting room) and staff room to the south-west, a former book stack room to the north-west, a former newspaper and reading room (now the computer room) to the north, and a junior lending library in the north-east corner with a linked juvenile study room to its west. To the west lies a lecture hall, accessed via the western corridor. The north-west corner room was originally a girls' room for Woolworth's. The plan survives with minimal alteration, principally the removal of partitions between the former junior and adult libraries and the removal of the issue desk from the latter. A caretaker's flat occupied the second floor.

The interior forms a remarkably complete and coherent suite in the Moderne style with art-deco details, with the octagon appearing as a recurrent motif in room shapes, roof lanterns and decorative elements, echoed in boldly angled door openings and architraves. The octagonal ground-floor entrance vestibule has a coffered ceiling, inset display cases and a commemorative board marking the library opening. The floors and walls of the vestibule, stair, entrance hall and corridors are clad to dado or three-quarter height in buff terrazzo with black mosaic banding, continuing around the architraves of main doorways. The stairs feature ramped brass handrails with horizontal balustrading around the wells. Several doors have splayed timber architraves, some with fluted tympana. The entrance hall is top-lit by a lantern above a deep coved cornice, its floor featuring contrasting terrazzo banding with an octagonal bronze-framed display case at the centre. A fluted frieze runs through the entrance hall and corridors.

The former adult and children's lending libraries have coved plaster ceilings with original stepped art-deco glazing to the roof lanterns, which has since been replaced with flat opaque glass. Both retain fixed shelving and flush veneered oak panelling, as does the juvenile study room (now the teenage library), which features a tall brick fire surround with octagonal piers originally containing a log-effect electric fire. The adult study room and former librarian's room are both octagonal spaces with flush panelling and shelving; the former is lit by a roof lantern. The entrance to the former reading room is set within a triple arcade, a dominant feature of the entrance hall with outer bays inset by bronze-framed display cases serving as windows. The reading room itself has octagonal coffering to the ceiling, half-height flush panelling, and a short flight of timber steps with a fluted panelled balustrade leading to the balcony window. The lecture hall features a segmental barrel-vaulted ceiling, flush wall panelling and a fully panelled stage with stepped splayed proscenium, with a gallery containing a projection box at the opposite end. Throughout the library are retained many original doors with brass and tubular steel fittings, internal glazed screens and windows, plaster cornices, built-in radiator grilles and display cases. The second-floor former caretaker's flat and the former Woolworth's girls' room were not inspected. The interiors of ground-floor retail spaces and basement are not of special interest.