Saltash Library

Saltash Library

A public library built between 1961 and 1963, designed by Royston Summers of the Cornwall County Council Architect's Department under FK Hicklin.

The building employs reinforced-concrete frame construction with shuttered, rendered and rough-cast finishes, and slim-profile aluminium-framed windows. Some original Nigerian walnut joinery survives internally.

The library is rectangular in plan, oriented facing west, with the north and south elevations slightly cranked inwards. Service rooms are positioned to the south and there is a mezzanine gallery to the east.

The exterior is designed in Brutalist style, based on the proportions of Le Corbusier's modular system and referencing Le Corbusier's Palace of Justice at Chandigarh (completed in 1956). A butterfly or Y-shaped roof with deep convex eaves rises higher at the front. The principal double-height elevation faces west, with aluminium-framed, full-height glazing set back from the building line. The glazing is visually divided by slender shuttered-concrete piers into five irregular bays, with fin-like protruding end walls to north and south finished in rough-cast concrete. The two piers to the north are oval in section and stand like columns separate from the front elevation. The entrance bay lies off-centre, flanked by flat-section concrete piers and a canopy. To the right is the staircase bay, and the southernmost bay has a high-level horizontal window with rendered wall. The vertical elements rise to the upward-sweeping canopy with a white painted finish underneath. The window glazing is a regular alternating pattern of vertical rows of squares and rectangles. The entrance door and its surround appear to be replacements, and a further door has been inserted five bays from the left.

The north and south elevations are cranked inwards and meet slightly off-centre below the roof valley, with a full-height canted window marking this meeting point on each elevation. The south canted window contains a doorway. The south elevation also has an L-shaped window to the first floor and a horizontal window on the ground floor. The rear elevation (east) has a canopy formed by the roof with protruding end walls, though full-height glazing here is largely obscured by a single-storey extension added in 1992 (excluded from the listing). The gallery glazing survives.

Internally, the library is entered on its west side into a double-height reception area. Opposite the entrance is the mezzanine, supported on shuttered-concrete H-frames and cantilevered at the ends. Below lies the main reception desk, children's library and original main stack area with acoustic-tile ceiling. The mezzanine is accessed via a wide dog-leg staircase adjacent to the entrance, with heavy Nigerian walnut balustrades. The mezzanine has railed balustrades of the same timber on all sides, though slim steel rails have been inserted and a steel railing added on top for further protection. Service rooms occupy the far south of the building. All other fixtures and finishes appear to be from the later 20th century or 21st century.