Central Library

Central Library

A public library built between 1979 and 1981 by Buckinghamshire County Council's architects' department. The project was led by Paul Markcrow, with Deputy County Architect John Sexton, studio architect Tse-Chiu Ng, and assisted by Graham Fenn and Jim Foster-Turner.

The building has a steel frame encased in concrete and clad in russet brown brick laid in stretcher bond. The roof, hidden by a parapet, comprises two hipped sections covered with asbestos cement slates. Door and window frames are bronze-coloured anodised aluminium.

The building occupies a rectangular plot facing south-east onto Silbury Boulevard and bounded by North Eighth and Ninth Streets. The main entrance of the two-storey building is positioned centrally on the principal façade and leads to a large entrance hall with exhibition space and the former church hall on the left, and the reference library on the right. The stair to the first floor is located at the rear of the lobby, leading to the main adults' and children's libraries.

The principal elevation features 17 bays articulated by a colonnade of rectangular pillars with full-height sections resembling a giant order rising to the parapet, alternating with single-storey sections to the height of the first floor. The colonnade is arranged in a slightly asymmetrical pattern of 2:2:3:3:2:3:2, with full-height bays at either end and corner pillars omitted from the composition, creating a wide opening. The elevation, set back behind the colonnade, has rounded corners in contrast to the strictly orthogonal colonnade. The ground floor features strips of glazing in aluminium frames, with cills clad in vertically laid brick with rounded corners. The lintels are similarly detailed but overhang slightly and continue to form a course around the building, above which the elevation is blank. The entrance comprises three sets of double doors with full-height windows between them, glazing above, and aluminium panels to either side. A cantilevered fascia box projects over the central section and carries modern signage. The colonnade continues on the return elevations, arranged 4:2:1, with the giant order on either side. The soffit of the arcade is weatherboarded.

The rear elevation, intended to be built upon in a second phase, is painted common brick with the projecting uprights of the frame. The elevation is recessed in the four left-hand bays, with windows lighting the library offices on the first floor. A plant room, excluded from the listing, projects from the elevation, and there are loading bays and access doors on the left-hand side.

The interior is deliberately restrained and plainly detailed. Walls are plastered and ceilings have areas of textured plaster and sections of aluminium matchboarding. Ceiling heights vary according to function, and large open-plan rooms are supported by plain circular structural pillars. Internal walls often join with curved corners, echoing the exterior form. Joinery is in ash, and doors retain original aluminium cylindrical knobs. Window cills are quarry tiled and windows have aluminium catches and stays.

The entrance lobby has a quarry-tiled floor and leads to a second set of doors. The central area of the entrance hall has a dropped ceiling with spotlights, behind which it is open to a dog-leg stair rising to a central landing (intended to be enlarged into a mezzanine floor in a second phase). Boyd and Evans' mural covers the wall between the storeys. A domed lantern in the roof above, together with the mural, creates a dramatic transition between floors.

The ground-floor reference library, occupying the depth of the building, has high ceilings and supporting pillars, with an aluminium-boarded ceiling. Original ash bookshelves line the walls, curving at the corners; these typically have five shelves with cupboards below. A curved enquiry counter sits beneath a suspended ceiling adjacent to the entrance, which is accessed through a timber screen with double doors whose glazing pattern recalls the external colonnade. Opposite the entrance are the exhibition gallery and former church hall, both plainly detailed.

The first floor is occupied predominantly by the adult lending library. It has an acoustic ceiling which opens up around the external walls to clerestory roof lights. A central enquiry desk sits beneath the central domed roof light. Round domed lamps, each with three spotlights, punctuate the ceiling on the south side of the room. Shelves line sections of the external walls and stand freely elsewhere, following the design approach used in the reference library. The children's library is positioned to the north; like the adults' lending library it has an acoustic plastered ceiling and clerestory lighting to the perimeter. Shelving is miniaturised to match. A story-telling area can be separated off by curtains. There are numerous offices, meeting rooms, and a staff room, all plainly detailed with timber matchboarded ceilings.

The building features a number of artworks. A bronze sculpture titled 'The Whisper' by André Wallace stands to the right of the main entrance. Boyd and Evans' large mural painting 'Fiction, Non-Fiction and Reference' lines the inner wall of the stairwell between the ground and first floors. A stainless steel geometric 'Mirror Sculpture' by Csáky is suspended from the ceiling of the children's library.

A steel porte cochere, characteristic of the town centre design, leads to the main entrance.