Former Bishop Philpot Library and Public Rooms

Former Bishop Philpot Library and Public Rooms, Prince's Street, Truro

This former library, meeting rooms and Masonic Hall was built between 1867 and 1869 in the Tudor-Gothic style. The building is constructed of local rubble brought to course with freestone dressings, featuring chamfered openings with hoodmoulds to the ground-floor bays of the north front and the first floor of the public rooms on the south front. The rear and right-hand side are rendered. The building has dry slate roofs and comprises a large rectangular plan.

The north elevation is multi-bayed with 2 and 3 storeys. The public rooms present a symmetrical 3-storey, 3-bay facade to Prince's Street with three gables, alongside a 4-bay, 2-storey range to the left. The ground floor has five square-headed casement windows with 4-light Gothic heads, two of which have lights partly replaced and one completely replaced by a 20th-century glazed door. All openings sit beneath a stepped string course. The taller entrance bay features a 4-centred arched door with buttresses at right angles, above which is a frieze bearing two recumbent heraldic beasts with coats of arms. The central first-floor window is a 5-light leaded design with a shield frieze at its base and quatrefoils to the centre, flanked by two cast-iron casement cross windows, all beneath a drip mould. The central gable holds two lancets and a quatrefoil, while the outer gables contain casements under 2-centred traceried heads. A further three 4-centred casements appear to the left. At the return angle to the public rooms is a 3-sided entrance with a 2-centred ground-floor doorway. A 4-centred stair window with a gable projects into a conical roof. Beyond this sits another gable return with one ground-floor 4-light casement and two first-floor 3-light casements, the gable itself containing a trefoil. The stacks have been cut down.

The Philpot Library wing to the right has one ground-floor 3-light shop window with cut stone arches and a single casement. The first floor contains two 3-light casements, while the attic gable has a 2-light casement. A gabled doorway features a 4-centred arched door and square hoodmould, with lettering and Bishop Philpot's coat of arms above. The 20th century has seen doors replaced.

The rear elevation to Green Street displays six first-floor 3-light windows serving the public rooms, with a central gable featuring a bracketed stack. A gable wing to the right contains a mullioned and transomed window flanked by smaller cross windows, all above three arched 2-light windows with Y-traceried heads. The Bishop Philpot Library section to the left retains two ground-floor outer frames of former 3-light mullioned and transomed windows now fitted with metal grill bars. A central 4-centred doorway with square hoodmould and carved spandrels contains a 20th-century door that replaced the original moulded door with tracery patterns. Above sits an elaborate cut stone oriel with six central traceried windows and single canted side light traceried mullioned and transomed windows. The bracket below the oriel bears the lettering "HEN. PHILPOTTS Ep EXON DD 1869" with a coat of arms. The canted roof of the bay carries a floriated frieze. The gable above features a quatrefoil with Bishop's mitre.

Interior

The public rooms contain a central staircase with concealed balustrade and an angle staircase with a cast-iron balustrade topped by cast-iron heads above the first floor. The hall is spanned by a 6-bay roof supported on wall posts with concealed trusses that remain intact. A 7th bay forms a gallery.

The Philpot Library retains two rear rooms, one with a classical fireplace and one with a Gothic fireplace. A modest well staircase with Gothic newel and classical balusters connects them. The landing features a 3-light window containing heraldic stained glass. The fine 2-storey library has a canted boarded ceiling with an upper gallery on cast-iron brackets, balustrade and brattishing. Massively overstructured High Victorian-style in-situ bookcases line the walls. The interior exhibits both Gothick and High Victorian-style details.