The Simmons Memorial Library

School library. Arts and Crafts style building of 1908, erected by the Royal Engineers in memory of Field Marshal Sir J Lintorn A Simmons, Chairman of the Gordon Boys' Home between 1892 and 1903. The library was extended in 1912 and was refurbished in 1990.

MATERIALS: brick in English bond with Portland stone dressings, also a tiled roof with a partly copper and partly wooden cupola. The windows have leaded lights.

PLAN: single storey, originally three bays with a central porch, extended to five bays in 1912.

EXTERIOR: the roof of the central bay has an octagonal copper cupola with an ogee dome with a finial and wooden ventilation louvre. Below, on the north-east or entrance front, is a projecting stone porch with a curved pediment - the cornice inscribed with the name of the building - engaged Tuscan columns and a round-headed entrance with a keystone and double panelled door. The two bays on each side have three-light mullioned and transomed casements with curved pediments, which alternately bear emblems of the Gordon Boys' Home and the Royal Engineers and are divided by brick and stone buttresses. The south-west side is similar but without a porch. The ends have gables with kneelers, ball finials to the apex and three horizontal stone bands. Each has a four-light mullioned and transomed square bay.

INTERIOR: inside a five bay wooden arch-braced roof and a ceramic wall plaque listing the achievements and offices of Field Marshal Simmons.