West Sussex Library

West Sussex Library

This public library and county library service headquarters was built in 1965-6 by West Sussex County Council to designs by F R Steele, the county architect until 1964, and his successor B Peters. The structural engineers were Ove Arup and Partners.

The building is formed of 72 prefabricated concrete portals erected around a central drum of exposed red bricks. Each portal is set at ten degree intervals and is exposed internally, supporting a pre-cast concrete floor slab at first-floor level and the flat roof. The roof over the central drum has a centrally radiating concertina form, built of timber and covered in copper, and incorporates clerestory windows. The elevational windows are metal-framed, with dark grey opaque glass spandrel panels.

The building is circular in plan with a diameter of 92 feet (28 metres). The central circular drum forms a double-height staircase hall which originally contained the music and drama library, now part of the general adult lending collection. To the east of the drum is the open-plan adult lending library, and to the west is the children's library, formerly the reserve book store, flanked by the work room where staff handle incoming and outgoing books and a lobby providing access to the lift and stair in the extension. The first floor contains the open-plan reference, periodicals, and local studies libraries to the east, with offices, the reserve book store, and a stair and lift lobby to the west.

A south-west extension contains the lift, a stair, and a staff room, stepping out from the main building and following its circumference for approximately 60 degrees. This extension is excluded from the listing.

The drum-like form stands on a low brick plinth, which accommodates the slight change of levels across the footprint and forms a paved walkway around its circumference. Two steps and flanking ramps lead up to the main entrance. The building's elevation is broken down into double-height bays by the exposed outer face of white-painted portals. The bays have segmental heads, below a deep white-painted fascia. The glazing and spandrel panels are set in from the building's frame, held in a light grey painted metal framework. The first-floor spandrel panels are dark grey, with curved bottom edges providing a segmental head to the ground-floor windows below. The ground-floor windows are essentially full-height but are broken horizontally into three lights, the glazing variously back-painted in light grey to obscure parts of the interior—an original feature of the building. The original entrance doors were low-key side-hung doors designed to reflect the glazing pattern of the windows so as not to break the uniformity of the elevation. These have been replaced with automatic sliding doors, which maintain a similar glazing pattern to the originals.

The building is entered from the east into a small lobby formed by a curved screen which separates it from the open-plan library. The screen is lined in Verde Issogne marble. The library space wraps around the central brick drum, which forms the centrepiece of the interior. The drum is pierced at ground floor by five wide archways and is lit by small triangular clerestory glazing set within the concertinas of the roof form. The inside face of the roof is lined with closely-spaced thin aluminium lathes, which have been replaced in recent years on a like-for-like basis with the originals. A large central pendant light is suspended above, and additional lighting has been added close to the roof. Around the inside of the drum is a curved stair cantilevered from the walls, with a decorative steel balustrade. Although now covered by carpeting, the floor has a black and white geometric starburst pattern believed to be laid in linoleum.

Outside the central drum, the structural portals are expressed—the inner face of the uprights canted outwards from floor to ceiling, and the horizontals supporting the first floor and roof canted upwards towards the drum. Non-structural walls dividing the various enclosed spaces are built below the portals. Some are original and some are new, but there is no obvious visual distinction between old and new. A small quantity of simple original joinery survives.