Carnegie Library, 298-300 Shankill Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT13 2BN

Carnegie Library, 298–300 Shankill Road, Belfast

This is a free-standing, corner-fronted, two-storey-over-basement public library, dated 1927–28 and restored in 2011. It was designed by Belfast-born architect T. W. Henry, who served as president of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects in 1920–21 and was the elder brother of Paul Henry, the well-known Irish artist. The building was commissioned by Belfast Corporation and constructed by Thornbury Bros Ltd of Belfast from 1926, completed on 11th September 1928 at a cost of £15,000. It was opened to the public on 9th November 1928 by Sir William George Turner, the Lord Mayor of Belfast. The design was selected through a competition judged by J. C. Wyness, the Edinburgh architect who had also designed the Ulster Museum.

The building follows an L-shaped plan facing north and east, with the main entrance positioned on the angled north-east corner. The internal angle of the L is infilled by a lower double-height block containing the lending library. The building is abutted to the west by a double-height structure, with a vacant site to the south. It occupies a prominent corner position on the south side of Shankill Road.

The hipped roof is covered in natural slate with blue/black ridge tiles and lead valleys. Four large roof lights sit on the east and west slopes of the north–south aligned roof pitch, and there are two copper cusped and vented roof lanterns with finials, one on each wing. A Portland limestone parapet with frieze and cornice runs around the roofline. Square cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative cast-iron hoppers are dated 1927. The lower double-height block to the south-west internal angle has a flat roof, with former roof lights now enclosed beneath a new bitumen covering.

The external walls are Flemish-bonded red brick with Portland limestone detailing, including a cyma recta moulded plinth course, projecting splayed sills, and plain window heads. Windows are generally square-headed multi-pane metal casements with brick reveals, unless otherwise noted.

The principal north-east corner elevation is the most architecturally distinguished. It features a cyrto-style Doric portico set against a limestone façade that finishes below the first-floor windows. Two Doric columns with pilaster responds support a frieze bearing brass lettering reading 'PUBLIC LIBRARY', above which runs a cornice with cyma recta moulding, modillions, and coffers with circular insets. A stone stepped dome roof covers the portico. Access is via three semi-circular bull-nosed granite steps (with indents introduced during the 2011 restoration). Two modern stainless steel railings flank the central access between the columns, while original curved painted cast-iron railings and a gate enclose the portico on all sides. The double-leaf entrance doors are six-panelled raised-and-fielded timber with brass ironmongery, set within a deep reveal with an ornately carved stone architrave. Above the portico is a single window comprising paired 9-light casements surmounted by paired 6-light windows, each divided by a limestone mullion and transom. A decorative low-pitched raking acroter bearing the Belfast coat of arms in relief surmounts the entablature.

The east elevation is seven bays wide. The four central bays are divided by projecting brick pilasters and contain ground-floor windows lighting the main library space; the first floor in this section is blank with a continuous sill course. The left and right bays each contain transom and mullioned multi-light windows at both floor levels. At the right of this elevation, a raised-and-fielded timber panelled door gives access to the basement, with paired 2/2 windows beneath a shared lintel to its right. A large double-height multi-paned stained glass leaded window incorporating the Belfast coat of arms surmounts the basement door. This window was installed at the end of construction specifically to allow the large opening to be used to load the heavy fittings into the building. To the left of the basement door are replacement uPVC windows set within the limestone plinth; to the right of the door are three square-headed openings containing timber louvres, all with replacement cast-metal vertical bars.

The south elevation is abutted at its centre by a straight chimneystack. The walls here are largely plain — smooth rendered at ground floor and exposed brick at first floor. A basement access door sits to the right of the central chimneystack; to the left of the chimneystack at first floor, a fire escape door gives onto a galvanised steel dog-leg fire escape stair added around 2011. The lower double-height block at the left of this elevation is smooth rendered.

The west elevation is abutted to the left by an east–west aligned two-storey-over-basement block and to the right by the double-height block containing library space. The exposed section at first floor is three windows wide. The west elevation of the east–west aligned block is itself abutted by a lower double-height building of no architectural interest; the exposed section of this elevation is blank, with the limestone parapet and classical entablature continuing approximately two metres across before ending where a former adjoining building appears to have been removed.

The north elevation contains four windows at each floor with no basement windows. The outer windows at each floor are narrower than the rest. A disabled access door, installed in 2011, sits below the window at the right.

Internally, despite some alterations during the 2011 renovation, much historic fabric survives and the overall detailing remains largely intact. Notable features include a stone open-well staircase with cast-iron balusters and the original stained glass window dated 1928. The first floor was originally designed as a museum gallery, fitted with bespoke lighting suited to displaying artefacts. Exhibits included part of the Patterson collection, drums of the 9th Royal Irish Rifles who fought at the Somme in 1914, a mummy, and various household artefacts, prints, paintings, and stuffed animals; these have since been relocated to the Ulster Museum.

The building stands on a site with a long history of occupation, as evidenced by the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps. Ordnance Survey Annual Revisions record an Irish Billposting Advertising station at 296–302 Shankill Road from at least 1916 to 1921, after which the site remained vacant until the library was built. The building first appears on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1931. The Belfast Street Directory first lists a 'Free Library' at this address in 1927, with a librarian named W. Moore noted in the 1930 edition. The chief librarian at opening is recorded as J. B. Goldsbrough. The 1935 General Revaluation values the library at £352, with the lessor named as Mr Lawrence Higgins.

Although the library is known as the Carnegie Library, it is not included in Brendan Grimes's gazetteer of Carnegie Libraries in Ireland, and its date of construction falls well after Andrew Carnegie's main period of philanthropic library building in Ireland, during which he spent around £170,000 on 80 libraries between 1897 and 1913. Carnegie was made an Honorary Burgess of Belfast City in 1910. Three Carnegie Libraries were built in Belfast — on Falls Road (1908), Donegall Road (1909), and Oldpark Road (1906) — and while the Shankill Road building shares some stylistic elements with these earlier libraries, it seems reasonably certain that it was not a Carnegie library, though no evidence has been found to explain the use of the name.

The architectural historian Paul Larmour (1987) described the building as "very restrained with no extravagance in taste or cost; just a little curved Doric portico to add dignity to a public building." The building is unusual in style among libraries bearing the Carnegie name, a character that reflects both its later date and its origin as a competition design by a locally prominent architect.

In 2006, the interior underwent a substantial refurbishment at a cost of £60,000. The building continues to function as a library.