Municipal Buildings And Public Library, 98-102 Cadzow Street, Hamilton

The Municipal Buildings and Public Library, located at 98-102 Cadzow Street, Hamilton, was begun in 1906-07 by Alexander Cullen, with construction resumed in 1912. It officially opened in July 1914, and a hall was added in 1928 through the collaboration of Cullen, Lochhead, and Brown. The building is an example of Edwardian Baroque architecture, influenced by the designs of EA Rickards, and features a quadrangular plan with basements.

The main south-west elevation is 17 bays wide. A broad, central entrance bay projects prominently, with concave angles that are channel-jointed. It includes a wide entrance door framed by Doric columns and pilasters, approached by steps within concave parapets flanked by ornamental cast-iron standards. Above the entrance is an arched window with a swagged decorative stone piece (keyblock), framed by Ionic pilasters and a segmental pediment bearing an armorial panel. Above this is a solid attic with lion heads. Five bays on either side of the central bay have balustraded basement areas, round arched ground floor windows accentuated by quintuple keyblocks, and architraved first-floor windows with canted aprons supported by coupled Ionic columns and balustraded parapets.

The 3rd and 15th bays feature slightly advanced side entrances, which are astylar and channel-jointed with first-floor balconies supported by console brackets. Their parapets are solid and panelled. The 2nd and 16th bays incorporate boldly advanced four-storey stair towers, with long windows on the front face. Giant trompe arches span the upper two stages of the towers, breaking through pediments to reach domed, octagonal top stages. The sides of these top stages are concave and ornamented with urns. The end bays mirror the Ionic detailing of the intermediate bays, but set back slightly and on a different plane, with single Ionic columns set within channelled pilaster strips and bold urns over semi-octagonal piers.

The south-east elevation, with eight bays, has end bays that are giant channel-pilastered and pedimented. Ground floor windows are arched with quintuple keyblocks, while upper windows are framed by Doric columns and linked by decorative swags to circular attic windows, all within shallow Ionic arched recesses. The inner bays have detailing similar to the main front, but with panelled Doric pilasters instead of Ionic columns, and lack channelled detailing at ground floor. The arched windows on this ground floor extend downwards to incorporate the paired windows at the lower basement level. A balustraded parapet runs along the basement level.

The north-west elevation returns with detailing similar to the front of the Town Hall. It has a five-bay front with channel-pilastered and balustraded stair towers of the same height, enclosing a single-storey, three-bay portico of coupled Doric columns. A recessed three-bay centre gable extends a storey higher, featuring segmentally arched second-floor windows with swagged keyblocks and a broken segmental pediment against the segmental gable.