Free Library

Free Library and Robert Owen Memorial Museum, Broad Street, Newtown

This building is mainly two storeys with attics, topped by steeply pitched tile roofs presenting an array of gables. Deep eaves and verges feature plain bargeboards, with an open turret to the centre crowned by a needle finial.

The left-hand elevation facing Broad Street was erected by the Co-operative Union. It displays a dark tile-hung advanced gable end on brackets above a first-floor tall canted oriel window with mullions, transoms, and lead cames. Narrow single-light transomed windows occupy flanking recesses. Whitewashed plaster is laid above a string course, with an ashlar ground floor containing two tall mullion and transom windows with lead cames and a continuous label. Putti flank a commemorative plaque at the centre.

The corner section incorporates the entrance, featuring an angular flat-roofed oriel over a balcony on a moulded stone bracket rising through the first and second floors. Flanking elevations have advanced gables (asymmetric to the left) over narrow lights, with Art Nouveau timber framing displaying long uprights and flame motifs to the right. A projecting brick stack on corbels to the right carries stone bands and a corniced cap. A five-light window to the first floor left is canted out to the centre. A string course runs across, with the ground floor in red brick with freestone bands and plinth. A shell hood on consoles over two-stage half-round columns marks the corner entrance with panelled doors. Tall mullion and transom windows with scrolled labels and aprons occupy the flanking elevations: one to Broad Street and two to Severn Street, flanking a commemorative plaque with putti.

The right end of the elevation to Severn Street rises to three storeys and an attic. Asymmetric timbered twin gables top jettied attics on the right, with four and two-light windows below. A three-light dormer window sits to the left. Broad eaves with exposed rafters characterise the roofline. The second floor is tile-hung and pierced by mullioned windows, while the first floor has an eight-light mullioned window. A simple doorway with canopy marks the ground floor, flanked by two narrow paired windows to the left.

The contemporary interiors are noted.