Public Library, Laing Street, Kirkwall

The Public Library on Laing Street in Kirkwall was designed by J Malcolm Baikie in 1908, with later alterations and additions. This is a two-storey, three-bay, symmetrical building with a rectangular plan, featuring a Free Library style. The entrance porch is supported by free-standing Doric columns and has a pediment. The first-floor windows are also pedimented and break the eaves. The roof is piended with a pierced red clay ridge. There are single-storey, flat-roofed additions to the east and a linking bay to the west. The exterior is constructed of squared and snecked rubble with polished sandstone ashlar dressings, and there is a cornice course between the floors along with a cill course for the first floor. The windows have stone mullions, and the building features long and short quoins.

On the principal elevation, the entrance porch is centrally located at ground level, with the inscription 'Free Library' on the frieze. Stone steps lead up to two-leaf, part-glazed timber-panelled doors, topped by a large rectangular fanlight divided horizontally. Each bay flanking the entrance has a tripartite window at ground level with a curved pediment above the bipartite window on the first floor. There is a door set to the left in a glazed addition on the right and another glazed addition on the left.

The windows are primarily two-pane timber sash and case, with fixed timber-framed windows in the right extension and steel-framed glazing with top-hung upper lights in the left extension. The roof is covered with grey slate and features decorative pierced red clay ridges with finials. The eaves cornice is formed by decorative, bracketed cast-iron gutters, and there are cast-iron, square-plan downpipes with decorative attachments.

Inside, the library is modern, with timber shelves lining the walls and a central timber staircase leading to the first-floor reference rooms.