Canton Library

Canton Library is a building constructed from coursed squared grey/brown sandstone rubble with Bath stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. It features three joined hipped roof blocks facing Library Road, with the central block recessed. The design reflects a Flemish late medieval style.

The elevation on Library Road consists of ten bays arranged in three blocks of 3:3:4. The central block has a single-storey entrance screen that extends to the street line. The left block includes strip buttresses and an ashlar plinth, cill, and eaves bands. It has three tall 2-light windows, each with two transoms; the top lights feature cusped Perpendicular tracery and small paned lights, with moulded heads above the windows. The hipped roof is adorned with finials. The left return elevation has a 2-light window flanked by single light windows. The central bay features a door with a 4-centred arch and carved spandrels, flanked by a 4-light cusped headed window set within elliptical arches. A parapet with a flat roof is located behind this section. The upper floor has paired windows on either side of a triple window, with larger lower lights and upper lights divided by a stone mullion resting on a transom, all with leaded lattices. The hipped roof continues as before.

The right block mirrors the left block but has four windows facing Library Road and a three-bay gabled elevation towards Cowbridge Road East. This gable features stepped windows, with the outer ones being single light and the center one a 2-light window, all having more elaborate heads than those on the left block. Below the center window is a relief plaque that reads:

"CANTON BRANCH LIBRARY ERECTED AT A COST OF £5,000 GIVEN TO THE CITIZENS BY ANDREW CARNEGIE ESQUIRE LL.D"

The gable is topped with coping, kneelers, and a ball finial.

In around 1990, the library experienced a severe fire that destroyed the roof of the left block. However, the right block, which serves as a hall with an open timber roof, remained undamaged. The interior features an arcaded vestibule with Baroque keystones.