Public Library, Ayres Wynd, Prestonpans

The Public Library, located on Ayres Wynd in Prestonpans, was built in 1904 and designed by Peter Whitecross. It is a single-story building with a two-story corner tower and a flat-roofed upper level to the north, constructed in an essentially classical free style. The exterior is primarily of squared and snecked red sandstone, with hammer-faced detailing, grey sandstone to the rear, and droved red sandstone dressings throughout. A base course and cill course are present, raised in places to align with window heights.

The west-facing front elevation is asymmetrical, with three bays on the single-story section and a two-story tower centered near the front. The south bay is gabled and features a large Venetian tripartite window with Doric pilasters, an architrave, and a round arch at the center, finished with a keystone. The tower incorporates the main entrance on its south-facing return, with a lugged moulded architrave, a broken pediment, and a datestone. A large tripartite window sits at ground floor and a smaller tripartite window at the first floor, both featuring carved cills, a keystone, and a lintel course, all topped by a cornice below decorative castellations. The north bay has a single bipartite window with a corniced hood.

The south elevation is plain, symmetrical, and single-story, featuring three tall bipartite windows. The north elevation is two-story high with two bays. The west bay is gabled with a tripartite window on the ground floor and a single window in the gablehead. The east bay features a tripartite window on the ground floor and an elongated dormer with four timber sections above. The east elevation is essentially a double gable, with a brick external staircase leading to the upper level in the north gable. The south gable mirrors the front elevation with a large tripartite Venetian window. The north gable is unremarkable, flanked by two large windows at ground level and two smaller windows within the external staircase leading to the upper floor, complete with a porch on the landing, a glazed door, and a small window. An elongated, flat-roofed dormer is present in the roof slope facing south.

All windows are timber framed with small panes, predominantly fixed or sash and case, with casements in the dormers. The gabled roofs are covered in graded light-grey slate, featuring skews, stylized skewputts, decorative red clay ridge tiles, and projecting eaves. Decorative rainwater hoppers are also present.

The interior remains fine and substantially unaltered.

Gatepiers in panelled red sandstone, showing signs of erosion, flank the front right, featuring square sections, cavetto copes, and ball finials. They are linked to a low front wall constructed of squared and snecked sandstone, topped with a saddleback ashlar cope and plain iron railings. The walls on the other elevations are higher, built from random rubble.