Bourne Hall Library and Social Centre

Bourne Hall Library and Social Centre

A public library and social centre designed from 1965 and built between 1967 and 1970 by A. G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates, with B. W. Loren as job architect, assisted by F. Fook. W. S. Atkins and Partners served as engineers.

The structure is of reinforced and pre-cast concrete with aluminium windows, green Cumbrian slate copings and mosaic external finishes to the perimeter wall. The building's most distinctive feature is its copper-clad dome, measuring 42.6 metres in diameter and 11.2 metres at its highest point, topped with a central glassfibre rooflight. Twenty vertical pre-cast concrete ribs form a corona around the dome. The knuckles of the ribs are held in position by an in-situ pre-stressed, post-tensioned concrete ring beam which forms both the gutter and the eaves for the main dome. The roof construction is a sandwich of materials: the outer layer is sheet copper bonded to felt and wood wool panels on steel joints spanning between the frame. Towards the outer edges of the roof, the wood wool panels are replaced by a band of lightweight Gunite concrete sprayed onto permanent formwork.

The exterior presents a curving volume with a continuous band of aluminium windows at ground and first floor level. The upper floor slopes inward and is surmounted by the broad copper dome with its corona of pre-stressed, post-tensioned concrete ribs. Single-storey volumes of varying widths project forward of the circular footprint. The windows are separated by load-bearing pre-cast white concrete mullions running between a floating plinth and fascia, and some windows have Cumbrian slate panels beneath. The elevations are designed to a four-inch (approximately ten centimetre) module, enabling standardised pre-cast components. The overall effect resembles a flying saucer, and the building was designed to sit low within the existing mature landscape. A ribbed concrete boiler chimney, 12.8 metres high, provides a vertical counterpart to the library's dome.

The building has a circular layout planned at three levels beneath a large central rooflight. The semi-open plan library occupies about half of the ground floor in a broad arc, accessed from the main foyer, and comprises a reference library, lending library and reading room. The main hall, designed for lectures, concerts and adult classes, is sunken below ground level, with its roof forming a mezzanine museum and exhibition area overlooking the library. Around the perimeter, single-storey ancillary rooms project outward, including a banqueting suite, catalogue area, offices and a junior library.

Two staircases of African hardwood are included: a helical staircase near the entrance with a polished concrete spine beam rising to the mezzanine floor (risers were added to this formerly open-tread stair in the 1990s), and a horseshoe-shaped staircase at the far end of the foyer which descends to the main hall. The internal walls are 0.4 metres thick concrete for sound insulation and are partially finished in timber panelling. Ramped entrances, a lift and low bookcases facilitate disabled access.

The junior library opens onto a raised external play area provided with brick planters and enclosed by an openwork wall of sculptural concrete blocks (the south wall has been removed). To the south, a former pond has been infilled with a paved surface.