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Summary

Description

James A Williamson, 1904-5. 6-bay Edwardian Baroque public library with 2-storey street frontage with 17th century details and single storey reading room to rear. Cream Blackpastures droved ashlar front, rendered to rear. Base course; channelled angle pilasters; architraved windows; ground floor windows with segmental arches and exposed sash cases, plain aprons; 1st floor windows with bracketted cills; dentilled eaves cornice; ashlar mullions.

E (FRONT) ELEVATION: advanced outer bays with moulded pediments bearing blank roundels and foliate carving (Joseph Hayes). Bay to outer right with round-arched doorway foliate keystone and carved city arms in surround of banded columns and broken pediment, 2-leaf panelled door and semi-circular fanlight with radial astragals; bipartite window at 1st floor above. Bay to outer left with dwarf secondary door with flat segmental-arched cornice, festooned bull's-eye window above, bipartite window at 1st floor. 4 centre bays with single windows at ground and 1st floor. Timber and lead domed decorative cupola ventilator with louvred round-arched and keystoned pedimented openings to all sides.

W (REAR) ELEVATION: 2-storey main block with single windows; single storey reading room with large glazed cupola.

Small-pane timber sash and case windows. Slate piend roof with lead flashings; apex stack to N, wallhead stack to rear. Rectangular embossed eaves gutter to front.

INTERIOR: rib-vaulted vestibule and hall with dentilled cornice; 2-storey front building overlooking reading hall through arcade of 5 arches with shouldered architraves and leaded panes at heads; moulded compartmental ceilings throughout; main reading hall with large domed cupola with elaborate naturalistic plasterwork (Mackenzie of Glasgow), egg and dart and bead and reel cornices with deep dentils, marbled columns and pilasters with Ionic capitals; plainer rear reading room with shallow tunnel roof with moulded transverse beams and long skylights.

References

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