Ferryhill Library, Fonthill Road, Aberdeen

Ferryhill Library, located on Fonthill Road in Aberdeen, was designed by Arthur Clyne and completed in 1903. This single-storey and basement library features a rectangular plan in a civic gothic style with Jacobean detailing. The structure is built from finely finished, tooled, coursed granite ashlar on the north and west elevations, while the remaining sides are constructed from granite rubble. Notable architectural elements include a base course, cill course, long and short dressings, quoins, and an eaves course, with predominantly bipartite windows.

On the north elevation, the principal entrance is marked by an advanced gabled bay at the center. It features a roll-moulded pointed-arched doorway supported by polished colonettes with floreate capitals, leading to a two-leaf panelled timber door topped with a small-pane fanlight. Above the doorway, there is an architraved niche set in the gablehead. To the left, steps lead down to the basement, and there are two shouldered timber windows on the ground floor. The gabled bay to the right has a pointed-arched tripartite window, framed by scrolls and a blank architraved tablet in the tympanum, along with a stepped hoodmould and two roundels in the gablehead topped with a decorative stone finial.

The west elevation is symmetrical with three bays, featuring a gableted central bay that breaks the eaves. It includes a window on the ground floor and a scrolled architraved motif in the gablehead, with a window in each of the flanking bays. The south elevation is asymmetrical with three bays; the left side has a gabled bay with a panelled timber door accessed by eight stone steps at the center of the ground floor, flanked by a tripartite window with a relieving arch. Each of the right flanking bays has a window, and there is an octagonal iron ventilator at the ridge. The east elevation features a single window to the right under a stepped-up half-ogee gable with a spherical finial.

The library includes a variety of timber sash and case windows and is topped with a grey slate roof, which is piended in places and has a pierced terracotta ridge. The stacks at the wallhead and gablehead are corniced and feature circular cans, while the rainwater goods are made of cast iron.

Inside, the library remains predominantly intact, showcasing tongue and groove timber panelling below the dado, with most of the cornicing preserved. There is decorative moulding on the ventilator, and a panelled door with stained glass upper panels is flanked by four stained glass panels on the north wall of the reading room.