Carnegie Library, Carnegie Street., Lurgan, Co Armagh, BT66 6AS

Carnegie Library

This gable-fronted Carnegie library in Lurgan was designed by Henry Hobart and built in 1906. It is constructed largely in red brick in the Edwardian Freestyle style, with the original structure being part two-storey and part single-storey. The building stands freestanding on Carnegie Street, a cul-de-sac opening off Market Street, with its north-west facing frontage sloping noticeably from north-east to south-west. A substantial two-storey extension was added in 1991–92, which is now almost twice the size of the original building.

The original section of the building is roughly rectangular in plan with the main two-storey block to the south. The roof comprises two main gabled portions to the east and west, linked by a narrower transverse gable. To the south is a lean-to, while to the north, in line with the entrance, sits a steep pyramidal roof topped with a weathervane. Much of the roof is now covered in replacement slate-like tiles with a mixture of terracotta and replacement concrete ridge tiles, except for the eastern side of the lower gabled section. There is a relatively small brick chimneystack to the rear of the two-storey gable, and two lead-clad fleche-like projections to the ridge of the single-storey section, which appear to have been altered in recent years.

The front elevation is asymmetric and divided into three sections: a large gabled bay to the left, an equally broad two-storey bay to the right, and a narrower tower-like two-storey central portion containing the entrance. The façade is largely brick, rising into a parapet coped in discoloured (but possibly originally red) ashlar sandstone and adorned with sub-Baroque scrolled apexes and ball finials. Shallow brick buttresses delineate each bay. The windows have sandstone cills and moulded sandstone dripstones. A bevelled brick plinth spans the whole elevation.

The entrance is set within a generously-proportioned arched recess in dressed red sandstone, flanked by pairs of half-height decorated Ionic pulvinated columns supporting a cusped semi-circular arch with 'FREE LIBRARY' raised lettering and a drip moulding over. Within the recess is a Botwick's collapsible steel sliding gate (as it was described at the time of opening in 1906), a threshold with encaustic tiling, and a timber screen. The central double door has leaded glazing in a simplified Art Nouveau manner to its upper panels, as do the sidelights and expansive fanlight.

Directly above the entrance is a large segmental-headed first-floor window with mullioned and transomed timber frame, its upper lights filled with typical Edwardian multi-paned glazing and decorative leaded tracery. A projecting sandstone relieving arch on dentilled brackets sits over this window, with moulded brickwork beneath the cill. To the left of the entrance, within the single-storey section, is a Venetian-like grouping of three tall windows with transomed timber frames, multi-pane upper lights, and a continuous drip moulding covering all three openings. Above this, within the gable, are three slit recesses also with drip moulding. To the right of the entrance is another triple-light window with a much wider central light, similar frames and moulding. Centred above this on the first floor is a large semi-circular window with more decorative drip moulding and moulded brickwork supporting the cill.

The east elevation is of more functional appearance, being wholly in brick and devoid of decoration except for a moulded brick eaves course. On the single-storey section are two large square windows with similar frames to the front but devoid of smaller panes, both now covered by modern security grills. On a small rear lean-to set back from the main elevation are two small windows with modern replacement frames, while above on a taller lean-to is a larger window with a timber sash frame. On the east face of the two-storey block is a large semi-circular headed stairwell window divided into a series of lights (some upper ones pointed) populated with leaded Art Nouveau glazing.

The west elevation is almost entirely obscured by the 1991–92 extension, which is constructed in brown-red brick and is almost twice the size of the original structure. Although largely modern in appearance, its gabled end bay attempts to echo the style of the earlier building, albeit in considerably more pared-down form.

The rear elevation shows the two-storey gabled bay to the left with a large semi-circular arched upper-floor window and three ground-floor doorways, all later 20th-century insertions with concrete heads and modern flat-panel doors. To the immediate right is another doorway with modern door, followed by three relatively small windows with modern frames. Above these are two further windows: one to the left with a timber sash frame and one to the right with a replacement timber frame. To the far right, on the rear gable of the single-storey block, is a group of three windows matching those to the front gable of this section but without drip moulding, covered by a security grill.

Rainwater goods are cast-iron with moulded guttering. Later 20th-century soil pipes are also present.