Carnegie Library, Academy Street, Coatbridge

The Carnegie Library, located on Academy Street in Coatbridge, was designed by Alexander Cullen and completed in 1905. This large, two-storey building with a basement features a rectangular plan and seven bays, showcasing the Beaux-Arts architectural style. It is constructed from pink ashlar sandstone, which is channelled at the basement and ground floor, with quoin strips, while the rest of the structure is made of stugged and snecked rubble. The library has a steeply pitched piended slate roof.

The front elevation includes windows in the five central bays that are multi-pane. The basement windows are paired and keystoned, while the principal floor windows are paired with banded architraved and consoled cornices. The first floor features tripartite windows. The left pavilion has architraved and corniced windows at the basement, with segmental-headed windows at the principal floor and tripartite windows with colonette mullions on the first floor. The right pavilion has bipartite windows on the principal floor with a banded architrave and mannered segmental pediment, along with tripartite windows on the first floor, similar to the left pavilion.

Ionic capitalled pilaster strips adorn the first floor, with a corbelled wallhead cornice and stepped parapets at the pavilions, which display the words 'CARNEGIE' on the left and 'LIBRARY' on the right. The main entrance is located at the second bay from the right, approached by steps with cheeks and cast-iron railings. The doorcase features a keystoned and blocked architrave with a corniced lintel and a pedimented panel. The front elevation has four windows to the left and at the basement, and five windows on the first floor. The left pavilion is slightly advanced, featuring a bipartite window on the principal floor and a tripartite window on the first floor. The left side has a door and two windows at the basement, three windows on the principal floor, and a tripartite window on the first floor.

On the left return gable, there are channelled giant pilasters with an open pediment, various symmetrical windows on the lower floors, and a Diocletian window on the upper floor. The interior has not been seen.

The boundary wall surrounding the library is made of stepped coped ashlar, featuring two octagonal ashlar piers with corniced caps and squat clawfoot metal lamp standards, which hold modern lanterns. Low quadrant walls with original railings connect to the steps leading to the main door, and there are two pyramidal-capped gatepiers at the service entrance on the left.