Passmore Edwards Free Library and former Redruth College, and boundary walls

This building comprises a library built in 1894–5 and a former college from 1891, both designed by James Hicks. The college was built for Thomas Collins. Contemporary boundary walls and gateposts face Clinton Road and Treruffe Hill.

Materials and Construction

The buildings are constructed of Carn Marth granite dressings with granite rubble infill. The former college features terracotta detailing. Both buildings have Delabole slate roofs with terracotta ridge tiles. There are two tall stone stacks at the gable ends of the former college and one to the south-west of the library roof.

Plan

The library occupies a corner site, with Clinton Road running roughly north to south and Treruffe Hill descending to the west. The library is rectangular in plan with an octagonal entrance tower on its north corner. The former college building to the south has a more irregular rectangular plan.

Exterior

The Library

The library is designed in a castellated Baronial style. The original entrance sits within a three-storey octagonal corner tower facing north-east. The building has two storeys plus a basement (or lower-ground floor) and attic, defined by stringcourses.

The east (principal) elevation comprises three bays including the tower. The southern bay has a gable surmounted by a ball finial. The tower contains the original entrance, approached by a flight of steps. A timber-panelled double entrance door is set within a round-headed arch with colonnettes flanked by buttresses. To the left of the door is the foundation stone with an inscription recording that it was laid by J Passmore Edwards Esq on 6 September 1894. Above the door are two stages of paired windows; those on the first floor have arched heads. The tower has a castellated parapet surrounding a pyramidal roof surmounted by a weathervane.

The central bay of the east elevation has two two-light windows to the ground floor with depressed-ogee heads separated by a buttress, and above these a pair of tripartite flat-headed windows. Between the stringcourse and the first-floor window is inscribed "PASSMORE EDWARDS FREE LIBRARY". The gabled southern bay contains a ground-floor window of two lights with depressed-ogee heads, separated by a buttress which grows into a corbel to support a canted oriel at first-floor level. Corbels of bolster-work rise from the canted corners of the ground floor to the stringcourse. Within the gable is a small two-light window.

The north elevation slopes down Treruffe Hill and is more irregular. A gable next to the tower has a tripartite window, and there is a four-light window to the ground floor lighting the stair, as well as other smaller windows, including to the basement. The rear elevation is three storeys with two gables facing west. To the north is an entrance door with a modern canopy. Windows comprise timber sashes to the lower-ground floor and small irregular fenestration to the first floor.

The Former College

The former college, originally separate from the library but now linked by a late-1960s single-storey block with canopied entrance (excluded from the List entry), is in a contrasting eclectic Renaissance style with terracotta details to the upper parts of the east elevation. The building is of two storeys with an attic and half-basement.

The east elevation is two and a half bays wide and asymmetrical, with the southern bay wider than the right. The southern bay has a canted bay window to the ground floor, and there is a square two-light bay window to the right-hand bay. The central entrance has been converted to a full-length window, and a moulded corbel supports an entablature which would have acted as a porch. On the first floor, above a stringcourse, the three-light window to the south and two-light window to the north have decorative terracotta surrounds, including Corinthian pilasters and swagged decoration to the lintels. Either side of the left-hand window are arched terracotta decorative plaques, and above is a balustraded parapet with obelisk finials, broken by a three-light attic window with fleur-de-lys motifs in terracotta and swagged decoration above. Above this is a stone Dutch-style gable with ball and urn finials. The gable above the right-hand bay contains a bull's-eye window. All windows are timber-framed sashes with transom lights, with trefoil details to the ground-floor windows.

The rear (west) elevation of the main part of the building is rendered and has timber-framed sash windows. It has a single-storey extension to the south with an external stone staircase faced in 20th-century blockwork leading to 20th-century double-doors. The south elevation is blind but the stringcourse continues across the gable end.

Attached to the south again is a single-storey block known as the annexe, originally one of the schoolrooms and now vacant. It is set back from the main building. On its east elevation are two small windows with depressed-ogee heads decorated with fleur-de-lys. The entrance is to the left and has a 20th-century door. The rear (west) of the annexe has three timber-framed windows within brick surrounds. The south elevation of the annexe is of brick construction with a large three-light timber sash window.

Interior

The Library

The original main entrance to the library is within the tower and leads to a lobby with a geometric-tiled floor. This lobby is separated from the staircase hall by a screen with coloured lead-framed glazing and glazed panels depicting birds and flowers, which also feature in lancet windows flanking the doorway and above it in a semi-circular window. The lobby screen is timber-framed with a scrolled pediment; the original doors to the staircase hall have been removed.

Beyond this is the main open-well staircase leading to the first floor. The staircase is Jacobean in style, with newel posts featuring bay-leaf and acanthus carved decoration, turned balusters, and simplified Vitruvian-scroll detailing to the string. To the west of the staircase hall is a small WC accessed through original moulded-timber panelled doors; the WC retains its original fittings, including a wall-mounted gas lamp.

To the south of the staircase hall is the main ground-floor area which contains the library. The central dividing wall has mid-20th-century openings and to the south is a mid-20th-century opening into the link block. The original ceiling cornices survive and inscribed ashlar marks are present in the wall plaster. Windows are metal-framed casements to the east and timber sashes to the west; all doors are 20th-century fire-doors.

The basement is accessed from the staircase hall and comprises a series of small rooms, most with their 19th-century panelled doors and door furniture. The basement stair has simple turned timber newel posts and a plain square-section baluster.

On the first floor of the library is the first-floor tower room and two large rooms, originally only separately accessible via the landing. Both of the latter have 1960s suspended ceilings and their walls are lined with glazed bookcases probably dating from the 1950s. In the eastern room, which has a canted oriel window, is a marble bust of J Passmore Edwards. The doors on this floor are all 20th-century fire doors and the landing has been enclosed by 20th-century fireproof partitioning. Windows are metal-framed casements throughout.

The Former College

Within the former college building, the ground-floor rooms have been opened out to create an open-plan space with the rest of the library. The rooms have 20th-century finishes and mostly suspended ceilings, although some 19th-century timber panelled doors survive. The basement is accessed from the west side of the ground floor and contains service rooms; there is also an access from the street for the coal hole, although this is now blocked.

The building retains its original dogleg staircase, with a turned baluster, a moulded newel decorated with carved pomegranates, and a carved Vitruvian-scroll to the string. The half-landing has a large timber-framed sash window with some coloured glass. The first floor retains 19th-century doors with chamfered panels and moulded architraves, and one room has a small fireplace with 19th-century surround, glazed tiles and cast-iron grate. The east-facing room on this floor contains a small 'squint' window looking north, from which the 19th-century railway viaduct can be seen. Its purpose is unknown but intriguing.

The Annexe

The annexe building is boarded internally throughout and is open to the roof with plain timber trusses and metal ties.

Boundary Walls and Gateposts

A low rubblestone wall with granite copings fronts the north and east frontages of the library and former college building, breaking and curving to accommodate the steps up to the entrance tower, and breaking again with stone piers between the library and former college building. Granite piers flank the entrance path to the annexe building at the southern end of the complex.