Victoria Art Gallery And Library

The Victoria Art Gallery and Library stands on Bridge Street as a fine example of late Victorian civic architecture. Built between 1897 and 1900, with a public library addition in 1912, it was designed by John McKean Brydon. The building has since been converted to serve solely as an art gallery, following the library's relocation in 1990.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar in the Baroque Revival style, drawing extensively on design features from the adjoining Guildhall. Its main rectangular form runs parallel to Bridge Street, originally housing the Public Library on the lower floor and a top-lit Art Gallery above.

The Bridge Street elevation presents two storeys across nine bays, with a corner tower containing the entrance and a single-bay return to Grand Parade. The rusticated ground floor features round-headed window openings with tripartite glazing, an impost band, and a central doorway that projects slightly, fitted with panelled double doors and a rusticated surround beneath a full entablature. The keystone displays a head of Minerva. The first floor displays a range of nine coved niches with alternating triangular and segmental pediments on consoles, each with a balustraded apron. The central niche is larger and flanked by Ionic columns and pilasters, containing a statue of Queen Victoria by Andrea Lucchese, presented by the women of Bath. A crowning cornice and balustraded parapet complete this facade. The north-east corner features the main entrance within a semicircular upper floor of three bays with an entablature and parapet on paired Ionic columns. This is surmounted by a large dome with oculi in its base. The entrance doorway itself breaks forward with an open pediment on Roman Doric half columns with square block rustication, set within a secondary arch with a swagged head and cornice. Panelled double doors are flanked by six or nine sash windows. The Grand Parade elevation mirrors the Bridge Street design but is positioned higher due to falling ground levels. It contains a single bay with a six-panel door with keyed head and relief panel above, flanked by four-over-four sash windows with a segmental pediment on consoles and balustraded apron. A cornice, balustraded parapet, and chimney stack with pots complete the elevation.

Internally, a circular entrance vestibule leads to a fine staircase of Hopton Wood stone with wrought iron balustrade and mahogany handrail. The ground floor, formerly the library, was converted to modern gallery space in 1990, losing all original library fittings. The main staircase rises through an arch as a heavy mahogany 17th-century revival stair with bulbous balusters and square-section newels, topped by a barrel vault. A tribune at the first-floor landing features six Bassae order Ionic columns of Devonshire marble beneath a coffered dome decorated with signs of the Zodiac in relief. The principal chamber is the top-lit picture gallery, opened in 1900, featuring a coved ceiling, a rectangular pitched skylight of five bays, a plaster copy of the Parthenon frieze, and a panelled dado with triglyphs of American walnut. An oak doorcase with pediment is dated 1899.

The building was commenced in Jubilee Year in 1897 and officially opened in 1900. The lending library opened in 1912 but relocated in 1990, after which the building became entirely dedicated to art gallery use. As a notable late Victorian public building, it forms part of the outstanding civic complex alongside the Guildhall in the High Street, serving as its northern adjunct. The north-east corner effectively closes the view from Laura Place across Great Pulteney Bridge.