Hove Public Library

Hove Public Library is a public library built in 1907, with the cupola removed in 1967. It was designed by architects Percy Robinson and W. Alban Jones from Leeds in the Wrenaissance style. The building is constructed of ashlar Doultine stone, with a roof concealed behind a balustraded parapet. The plan features a flat facade leading to an octagonal hall that opens south into radiating bays, west through a three-bay arcade to a reading room, and east through a similar arcade to a staircase that provides access to the rotunda.

The library has two storeys and a three-bay main block, with a lower one-bay wing on the left (east). The facade is adorned with fine low relief carvings. It includes a central open pediment with a round-arched opening supported by Ionic columns, with additional carving in the pediment. A tall round-headed window with fixed lights is fronted by a wrought-iron balcony, and there are three circular windows on either side, separated by carved fascias and linked by ribbons and garlands above and below. The ground floor features three square-headed windows flanking the entrance, which is under an egg-and-dart moulded entablature with cherubs' heads as capitals. Above the entrance is a carved panel inscribed "Public Library," flanked by reading cherubs and Ionic columns, leading to a recessed entrance with half-glazed double doors. To the left is a service entrance with two small first-floor windows and a semicircular panel over the entrance carved with cherubs and double doors.

Inside, the library is notable for its spatial interest, plasterwork detailing, and moulded compartment ceilings, including an ornamented shallow dome in the rotunda. The original painted texts promoting economy and the acquisition of knowledge have been removed. When it first opened, there was also an open-air reading garden on the roof. The library was established thanks to a donation from Andrew Carnegie in 1903 and is recognized for having one of the most attractive facades among the many public libraries built before the First World War.