Bangor Carnegie Library, Hamilton Road, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4LH

Bangor Carnegie Library, Hamilton Road, Bangor

Bangor Carnegie Library is a symmetrical, two-storey over basement, three-bay Arts and Crafts style library built around 1910 to the designs of Ernest L. Woods, who was then serving as Town Surveyor for Bangor. It is a good example of the smaller libraries in the Carnegie series and is of particular note for its incorporation with a technical school — an arrangement that arose from local negotiations with Andrew Carnegie himself. The building is publicly owned and remains in use as a library.

The building has a rectangular plan with secondary rear accommodation and a large modern extension and restoration carried out around 2008. It is located to the north of Ward Park, fronting Hamilton Road opposite Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, and is set back behind a boundary wall with brick and sandstone piers and replacement railings and gates.

Architecture and External Appearance

The roof is finished in natural Welsh slate with clay ridge tiles and leaded valleys, carried over exposed overhanging timber rafters. Ogee-moulded cast iron guttering is used, with decorated box gutters and circular downpipes. The walls are constructed in Flemish Bond red brick with a projected plinth course.

Windows throughout are single-glazed timber casements, both multi- and single-paned. The ground floor windows have chamfered sandstone cills and lintels; the first floor windows have segmental single-brick arches. The principal entrance features chamfered ashlar sandstone jambs and lintel with a cornice, and a projecting segmental arched sandstone canopy above. The door itself is a replacement timber door, flanked by narrow oblong sidelights.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged, with projecting paired Dutch gables to either side of the central entrance bay. Above the entrance canopy is a large sandstone plaque inscribed "Carnegie Library and Municipal Technical School." A centrally located tripartite casement window sits at first floor level above the entrance. Each symmetrical gable end features two large square-headed windows with sandstone mullions and transoms, a large segmental arched window to the first floor with sandstone reveals formed from the gable drops, and a projected brick label course. At the gable head, a small arrow loop opening is flanked by projected decorative brickwork and embraced by decorative sandstone coping stones. A copper-clad ventilation lantern is centrally located over the ridge and is surmounted by a weathervane.

The east elevation is symmetrically arranged and three windows wide. The ground floor windows match those of the principal elevation, with smaller plain segmental arched windows above. The rear gabled elevation has tripartite ground floor windows to both gables, with two additional segmental arched windows to the first floor of the left gable. This elevation is centrally abutted by a two-storey flat-roofed link block with varying window sizes, finished in white render. The east face of this abutment is a two-storey gable end with no openings. The south face is abutted by the large modern two- to three-storey extension. The west gable of the link block carries a centrally positioned projecting chimney stack, stepped in at first floor level and rising over the gable apex, terminating with cornice detailing and two clay pots. Segmental arched windows flank the stack at ground and first floor level, with louvred openings to the basement. The west face of the link block has been infilled with a fully glazed modern staircase. The west elevation mirrors the east elevation, with evidence of an infilled opening at basement level.

The ornamentation and detail throughout are of good quality and contribute to the building's robust character.

Interior

The plan form has been altered by the removal of the original central staircase during the 2006–8 refurbishment. However, the essential character of the large principal rooms has been retained, along with original features and finishes. A commemoration plate in the porch, still surviving, was designed by Charles Braithwaite, who was a teacher of Decoration in the technical school.

Setting

The building sits within Ward Park, a large landscaped and wooded public area with associated water features and a war memorial. The front elevation addresses Hamilton Road, a busy thoroughfare leading towards the town centre. The setting of the principal part of the building is enhanced by the boundary wall and piers along Hamilton Road. The large modern extension to the rear has had a significant effect on the building's overall character and setting, but does not significantly detract from the features of special interest.

Historical Background

The library was opened on 8th January 1910 by Lord Londonderry and first appears on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1919–26. On opening, it entered the valuation records at £85, with the immediate lessor recorded as Baroness Clanmorris.

Between 1897 and 1913 Andrew Carnegie promised over £170,000 for the building of approximately 80 libraries in Ireland. Not all were built, some have been destroyed, and sixty-two survive. Eight of the surviving sixty-two are in Northern Ireland. Carnegie spent his early life in Scotland, but when his family's income from hand-loom weaving declined with mechanisation, they emigrated to America when Andrew was thirteen. As a boy in Pittsburgh he benefited from a library opened by a local philanthropist and became convinced that there was "no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls" as the founding of public libraries. He later became extremely wealthy, initially through manufacturing railways and locomotives, and subsequently through steel production. In 1881 he made his first gift of a public library to his home town of Dunfermline, and in 1901, having sold his company, he donated over five million dollars to New York City for the construction of 65 branch libraries. In all he financed around 2,500 libraries in ten countries, the large majority in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. In Ireland, Carnegie insisted that his provision was solely for libraries, though he did also provide church organs.

Bangor Urban District Council applied to Carnegie for a grant and was offered £1,500 in August 1902. Ernest Woods prepared plans for a library in 1903, but the project stalled for some time due to difficulties in finding a suitable site. The local authorities initially felt the town's needs would be better served by a school than a library, but Carnegie was firm that his work in Ireland was the provision of libraries. He was eventually persuaded to allow the library to be built in combination with a technical school, so that fundraising could draw on rates raised under both the Libraries Act and the Technical Instruction Act. Woods prepared revised plans in 1908 and work began in 1909.

The Irish Builder announced the completed building in January 1910, describing it as being "in the Renaissance style of pressed bricks and white stone dressings," with a total outlay of £3,600, of which £1,500 came from Carnegie and the balance was raised on loan by the Technical Committee. The heating work was executed by Messrs Musgrave & Co of Belfast; the stained and common glass work by Messrs Campbell Brothers of Belfast; and the general building work by Messrs William Dowling & Sons of Belfast. Ernest Woods was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland in 1911 on the basis of this and other works in Bangor.

Originally the building comprised a two-storey main block with a single-storey annex to the rear connected by a short passageway. The ground floor of the main building housed the library, with classroom accommodation in the annex. A room over the entrance on the first floor was used by the committee, and the remainder of the first floor served as the school. The basement contained workshops and book storage.

In 1927 the rear annex was raised by a storey to provide additional accommodation, and it appears that it was at this time that a large three-light window by Campbell Brothers, depicting the seal of the ancient abbey of Bangor, was removed. The valuation was subsequently raised to £115. By 1934 the building's accommodation included, on the ground floor, a library, reading room, staff room, office, cookery room and typewriting room, with lavatories off the passageway, and in the annex a woodworking room, heating chamber and store. The first floor contained four classrooms, the principal's office and further lavatories, while the basement housed a bicycle store and two storage spaces.

Sometime between 1934 and 1941 the building was extended to the rear, raising the valuation to £200, though those extensions have since been demolished. Also demolished is a forge built to the east of the annex in 1941, which contained two anvils and a small fire and briefly raised the valuation to £202.

By 1998 the building's sole use was as a library, at which point it was described as the busiest library for its size in Northern Ireland. In 2006–8 a major refurbishment and extension was undertaken under the supervision of Stephen Connolly, architect to the South Eastern Library Board. During this process the main staircase facing the entrance was removed. The original rear annex has been retained and a large extension constructed to the rear.