Falmouth Art Gallery And Library; Passmore Edwards Free Library

SW 8032 NE 843-1/7/203

FALMOUTH, THE MOOR (North West side), Falmouth Art Gallery and Library (Passmore Edwards Free Library)

16/12/94

GV

II

Free library, council chamber and science and art school, now library and art gallery. 1896, by WH Tresidder; patrons J Passmore Edwards and Octavius Allen Ferris. Squared grey limestone with granite dressings including rock-faced plinth, ashlar pilasters, moulded strings and sills, jambs, arches, copings and finials; dry Delabole slate roofs with gabled cross wings with stepped finials; central octagonal lantern with lead dome on open Tuscan colonnade. PLAN: (original use): large irregular roughly square plan with loggia and vestibule to large stair hall with imperial staircase; newspaper and reading room behind stair hall; offices and strong room to cross wing on the left; lending library, small librarian's room, wider reference library, service stair, caretaker's accommodation and rear passage to cross wing on the right; cross passages flanking reading room. 1st floor has small science room and cloakroom in front of landing; council chamber and mayor's parlour on the left and science rooms on the right. Eclectic style combining Italianate, Renaissance, neo-classical and Flemish details. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; symmetrical 1:3:1-bay front. Cross wings have Venetian windows with inscriptions above framed by panelled pilasters, linked by 4 strings and surmounted by finials, and keyed round arch to 1st floor, and paired segmental-arched windows to ground floor; flanking end pilasters to each floor. Central distyle-in-antae Tuscan loggia; roll-moulded granite doorway with original pair of panelled doors behind, flanked by segmental-arched windows; moulded entablature above loggia (with name inscribed to frieze) surmounted by squat turned balustrade. 1st floor has 3 strings over Venetian window flanked by pilasters and narrower bays with round-arched windows. Casement windows to ground floor, sashes to 1st floor; central lights of Venetian windows of wings have glazing bars and spoked fanlight heads. INTERIOR retains most of its original features including: glazed screen between shallow vestibule and hall; granite flagged hall floor; open-string staircase with turned balusters and newels; moulded plaster ceiling cornices to principal rooms, the stair hall and reading room with deep coves, the reading room with 4 central panels; many panelled doors. The building was erected at a cost of £7,000, including £2,000 which was given by J Passmore Edwards and a bequest of £2,000 by Octavius Allen Ferris. Forms part of an important group in the centre of Falmouth, including the former Town Hall (q.v.), and comprises a good example of a Free Style library building of the late C19. (Best RS: The Life and Good Works of John Passmore Edwards: Redruth: 1981-: 45; Kelly: Kelly's Directory of Cornwall: London: 1910-: 105).

Listing NGR: SW8062032922