Brecon County Library

Brecon County Library

This is a library building constructed with a reinforced concrete frame featuring waffle floor and roof slabs. The main elevations are finished in light sand-coloured silica brick with darker brick used at ground floor level. Glazed panels and slate roofs complete the external envelope.

The building is positioned along a sloping site with its principal elevation facing Ship Street. This elevation displays eight staggered and angled window bays separated by brick panels, positioned above a ground floor comprising slender supporting piers set at angles directly beneath each window bay. The angled window bays are designed to provide acoustic baffling against traffic noise from Ship Street whilst allowing natural light to penetrate the interior. The main upper floors sit behind these angled bays, whilst the ground floor is slightly set back and appears more lightweight and open, creating visual emphasis on the floors above. This effect is heightened by the building's elevated position on the sloping site.

Access to the main floors is via a single-storey entrance building attached to the right, whilst a separate door on the left provides ground floor access. The return elevation to the right is flat with two large windows recessed between brick panels at each corner. The entrance block, reached by short steps, contains a projecting canopy over the main double glass entrance doors.

The Bell Lane side elevation repeats the staggered window bay treatment with fourteen narrower bays. The ground floor is again recessed, with two wide doorways on the left providing access to the garage. The roof comprises three large hipped dormers along the Ship Street axis, covered in slate with large rooflights on the southern side allowing down-lighting through the interior.

The main Ship Street entrance leads into a small vestibule and then up a ramp to the first-floor lending area. Stairs with simple square-section treads on a steel frame and polished timber rails rise beside the ramp, encircling an internal concrete pillar. A further straight flight descends from the rear of this pillar to the ground floor. In the north-east corner is a secondary service stair and lift providing access from the garage and plant areas to both the first and second floors.

Originally the library's control desk was positioned at the head of the ramp with a Junior Lending area and small administration office partitioned in the south-west corner. The remaining first floor was divided between reference and lending sections, with reading desks against the Bell Lane windows and a Periodicals section beside the stairs. The layout has since been modified: the control desk has been relocated away from the ramp entrance, presumably to reduce its visual prominence while maintaining accessibility. The original reference section shelving now displays lending material, whilst the former lending section contains a central desk with computer terminals. The Junior Lending area has been enlarged with partitions removed, and the adjacent administration office has been entirely removed, though the partition lines remain visible in the flooring. Some original finishes survive, including slate on the access ramp and cork tiles on the main first floor. The slatted ceiling panels and decorative moulded panels along the north wall are likely original.

The first floor also contains main offices, workrooms, gallery space and stack rooms. The ground or basement level houses garaging and staff parking accessed from Bell Lane. An open-plan exhibition space occupies the Ship Street side.