Library And Librarian'S House

Library and Librarian's House, Tavistock

This library and former librarian's house, now largely occupied by the Tavistock Museum except for the reading room of the Subscription Library, was built around 1830 by the architect John Foulston in Gothic style for the sixth Duke of Bedford.

The building is constructed of rubble, probably slatestone, with granite and plaster dressings and an embattled parapet above a moulded cornice. The roofs are slate. The window openings consist of square-headed frames with hoodmoulds and sash windows with arched lights.

The building has a roughly L-shaped plan on the site of historic plots defining the north east corner of the Great Court of Tavistock Abbey. It comprises a two-storey former library range built against the north east wall of the former abbey gateway, and at right angles, a two-storey former librarian's house which incorporates an earlier crenellated turret at its south end. The house was extended to the rear to provide additional accommodation, probably in the 1860s.

The front south west elevation of the librarian's house is of two bays with a projecting turret to the far right. It has a central flat-headed entrance with a timber door with vertical beading, flanked by a sash window with plaster surround and granite sill on either side. The two first floor windows match those on the ground floor. The ground floor turret window is similar, though the first floor window is a false casement; both have granite rather than plaster surrounds. The rear elevation of the house is of painted brick to the ground floor and slate hung above, with all windows being sashes. The library range is built in matching materials and in the same Gothic style. Its principal elevation faces south east and has a narrow half-glazed entrance door with a single-light sash alongside, both set within a square-headed frame. The rear north west elevation has a symmetrical arrangement of three two-light windows with arched heads to both ground and first floors.

Internally, the librarian's house plan has not changed significantly since the late 19th century. The entrance door leads into a hall with two rooms to the left, all retaining 19th-century fireplaces and joinery. At the rear of the property, the 1860s addition contains a kitchen and a pantry or scullery. A staircase with stick balusters positioned alongside the turret gives access to the first floor. Upstairs there are two front rooms and three back rooms. The second front room has a fireplace with a timber surround featuring roundel decoration, and in its north wall is an alcove marking the position of the former doorway into the library. The ground floor of the library range comprises a small lobby with a narrow passage and the reading room of the Subscription Library, which has a fireplace with a chamfered granite surround. A staircase at the south west end of the range has stick balusters and a curtail step, leading to a first floor landing and the former lecture room above the Subscription Library. This room has a vaulted ceiling rising from deeply moulded cornices and an elaborate Gothic chair at its east end, though the two doorways and timber screen at the entrance are not original.

The history of the building is closely connected to the redevelopment of the site following the Dissolution. In 1823 John Foulston was commissioned by the sixth Duke of Bedford to repair the old buildings in Guildhall Square, the site of the former Great Court of Tavistock Abbey. The repairs included alterations to the principal gatehouse—the 12th-century Court Gate—renovation of an old house in the south east corner of the Court, and construction of a Gothic screen which included a crenellated turret to hide a water mill at the north east corner.

The Duke became President of the Tavistock Subscription Library, founded in 1799, in 1810, a family connection which continued until the 1950s. From 1822 the Library occupied a classical building in what is now the south west corner of Bedford Square to the north, but in 1829, as part of his proposed redevelopment of this part of the town, the Duke offered the Library alternative accommodation above the Court Gate arch. By the end of 1830 a two-storey range of three bays for the Subscription Library and the Tavistock Institution had been constructed to the north east of Court Gate, and at right angles, a house for the librarian. The crenellated tower that was part of Foulston's re-fronting of the mill was incorporated within the design of the house, and its south east wall appears to have been a wall of Foulston's mill building. The architect's scheme gave the librarian direct access through a doorway to the first floor room of the library, which was designed as a lecture room. In the later 19th century the house was extended to the rear.

A succession of librarians occupied the house until 1928, after which it was used by employed caretakers. In 1964 Court Gate and the library building were purchased by Tavistock Town Council. By that time the Library only rented a room and lobby on the ground floor; the upper rooms were let separately, as was the house, until 2004 when both were leased to the Tavistock Museum.

There is a low boundary wall of granite blocks to the front garden of the librarian's house, although the associated railings were removed in the mid-20th century. In the rear yard is a lean-to wash house, though its slate-clad roof has partially collapsed.