Dowlais Public Library

Dowlais Public Library is a late 19th-century building constructed in rock-faced Pennant stone with red Alveley sandstone dressings and a slate roof. It is a public library of basement and main storey, set on an L-plan with a main reading room in the north crosswing, an entrance and exhibition room in the south range, all over a basement. The library demonstrates a free 17th-century style with Art Nouveau carved details, and features plain, square section mullions and transoms to flush grid windows.

The main east and south gables have ornate shaped gables with ogee tops and finials, the coping interrupted by two raised piers with shaped curved caps. The east and south gables contain two ground floor windows, each with three lights of three panes, moulded sills, and a flush band below and above. Above the windows is a large roundel with a nine-pane grid and ornate carved cartouche. The two raised piers on these gables are supported by brackets flanking the ground floor sills. The copings have a concave curve each side of the raised piers, then an ogee curve to a shoulder, before a big convex curve leading to an ogee finial. The piers are finished with carved cartouches at their tops. The north side wall has five grid windows, with three being three lights of three panes each, and the outer two being two lights of three panes. These windows feature similar moulded sills with brackets, and flush banding. An eaves cornice, split by a small gable with an ornately carved roundel window, runs along the north side. The outer windows slightly project to emphasise a narrow centre bay. Three basement openings are visible to the right.

The main range to the left of the east gable contains a slightly projected entrance bay with a hipped roof and a moulded sandstone eaves cornice that steps forward over a carved plaque displaying “Public Library” in Art Nouveau lettering. Short piers with curved caps flank the cornices either side of the plaque. A flush band sits under the plaque, positioned above three small, plain leaded lights over the cornice of the doorway. The doorway has splayed sides, an ashlar depressed-arched head with a scrolled keystone and dental cornice, supported by Art Nouveau shield carvings on either side. Six stone steps lead to the entrance, which are concreted over and feature Art Nouveau carvings of books in the spandrels, with a keystone over the double-panelled doors.

To the left of the main range is a wing with a modillion eaves cornice over four grid windows, one of two lights of three panes, and the others of three lights of three panes. Moulded sills are present, along with a basement door and two three-light and one two-light mullion windows. A panelled door is topped by a two-light overlight, flanked by large carved cartouches featuring bearded faces.

Iron railings stand in front of a ramped stone wall with an ashlar coping. The rear of the building is largely rendered, with a projecting bay with a mullion window on the south side of the reading room.

Inside, the main reading room has an open timber roof with double-collar trusses, ceiled at the upper collar with arch bracing at both levels, supported on corbels. Glazed screens partition two small areas to the west end. The south exhibition room has a 20th-century ceiling.