Carnegie Central Library, Abbot Street, Dunfermline

Carnegie Central Library, Abbot Street, Dunfermline

A substantial rectangular-plan library on a 2 and 3-storey scale with basement, comprising two adjoining blocks built in successive phases. The original building was designed by J C Walker and constructed between 1881 and 1883 in Gothic Revival style. James Shearer extended it between 1914 and 1921 in a stripped Renaissance manner, and Stone Design Ltd of Stirling carried out a further extension between 1990 and 1993.

The original section is built of coursed stugged sandstone with polished sandstone ashlar dressings, featuring a base course to principal elevations and moulded band courses between storeys. Its windows have stopped roll-moulded surrounds; the roll-mouldings to upper windows terminate at nook shafts with foliate capitals. The extension is similarly constructed with moulded surrounds to principal windows. Architectural emphasis is placed at the corners of each block through bartizans and a pavilion roof to the original section, with a French pavilion roof and Dutch gable marking the north-east corner of the extension.

The north elevation on Abbot Street presents an asymmetrical composition. An asymmetrical arrangement is dominated by a 3-storey entrance bay stepped forward as a tower to the left. The central entrance features a shallow gabled porch with crocketted finial; the gablehead bears the inscription "THE GIFT OF ANDREW CARNEGIE ESQ TO HIS NATIVE CITY - THE MEMORIAL STONE WAS LAID BY THE DONOR'S MOTHER 27TH JULY 1881". Below is a moulded Gothic arch inscribed "CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY" beneath a hoodmould. The entrance itself is a Caernarvon-arched opening set back with flanking nook-shafts of two orders with foliate capitals. The tympanum is carved with a scene of a rising sun and the motto "LET THERE BE LIGHT", and a 20th-century 2-leaf glazed timber door hangs within. A 2-light window sits above. The central third-floor window is set beneath a shouldered gable with carved panel and gableted pinnacle, topped by a decorative wrought-iron finial. Flanking octagonal bartizans, each containing a single-light window to three outer faces, have shafts with foliate capitals between them; these capitals are linked by a band course to the central window. Carved and moulded bands decorate the lower sections of the bartizans, which are crowned by moulded cornices and conical roofs with wrought-iron finials; a machicolated band links them at lower level. To the right, three bays are set back, followed by two projecting bays, each containing a 2-light mullion window beneath bracketed eaves cornice and a pavilion roof above the two outer right bays.

The east elevation shows the original building's 3-storey single-bay section to the right, featuring a pair of windows to the ground floor with a narrow basement window below to the left, a single window above to the right, and a small 2-light mullion window with long and short surrounds to the outer left. A panel carved with intertwining initials "J C W" sits between these windows. A 2-light mullion dormer window with shouldered gable and carved finial lights the third floor. To the left, a 3-storey tower-like stair bay from the later section projects forward, its corners chamfered at the upper stage and surmounted by a parapet-like eaves cornice topped by a French pavilion roof. A pair of ground-floor windows with roll-moulded surrounds opens to this bay. Above sits a breaking eaves centrepiece comprising a pair of vertically banded stair windows set back within a pilastered surround and crowned by a 5-tier Dutch gable. The right window is stepped up at cill level; horizontal ashlar bands mark the junction between the two cills to the right of the bay. Windows set back within segmental arches flank a shared central pilaster; plinth-like panels sit at the bottom of the pilasters, flanked by moulded outer bands surmounted by segmental-plan ledges supporting carved figures. A wide transom carved with heraldic insignia and flanking initials (respectively R R and M R) spans the centre of each window, with a narrower plain upper transom to the left window. Both windows have projecting cills; the left one is fitted with a decorative wrought-iron balustrade. The gable is inscribed "19-15" and "A C" (intertwined) at its base, with flanking panelled obelisk pinnacles set at angle and both topped by wrought-iron finials. A small architraved first-floor window and a piended dormer with overhanging eaves and swept sides occupy the right return. To the left are three bays, each with a 4-light mullion-and-transom window to the ground floor and a 2-light mullion window above. Polychromatic band courses link the stair bay to the lintels of the windows to the left. Some basement openings have been inserted or blocked. Plain horizontal panels sit above the first-floor windows, and an obelisk pinnacle surmounted by a carving of a lion with shield crowns the outer left of the eaves.

The south elevation shows the later section adjoining the 1990s extension to the east. A blank elevation faces west, with harling above coursed rubble and an ashlar base course; stepped ashlar buttresses reinforce the wall, and a gable projects to the left.

The west elevation presents the gable end of the original section, connected to No 5 Abbot Street via a late 20th-century enclosed walkway. The later section to the south is harled over an ashlar basement. Bands of windows linked horizontally at upper levels by band courses across cills and lintels comprise 2-light mullion windows to basement and first floor, and 4-light mullion-and-transom windows to ground floor (with one to first floor). The outer right bay steps up slightly and is topped by a pyramidal roof.

Windows throughout the original section are mainly 3-pane timber sash-and-case; the extension features single 2 and 3-pane metal frames with pivot sections. Grey slate roofs are visible in places. A pair of gablehead stacks stands to the south of the extension (one harled), with one featuring a projecting flue and moulded cornice to the west of the original section, and a narrow ridge stack (an addition) to the east; round cans top all chimneys.

Internally, a glazed tunnel vault extends across part of the extension. A half-turn main staircase serving the early 20th-century extension features a decorative wrought-iron balustrade by Thomas Hadden, designed to the architect's specification. Timber panelling with carved decoration, including a Jacobethan mantelpiece to the south of the main staircase, may have been relocated from the original section.