Description

261/0/10026 PACKE STREET
18-MAY-07 (South side)
19
GRANBY STREET
(North side)
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY

II
Public library including linked former librarian's house. 1903-5. By Barrowcliff and Allcock of Loughborough. Red brick with terracotta dressings and slate roof with various tall stacks to house. Library in an exuberant Baroque style, to front, plainer to rear, and house in Vernacular Revival style. The main range is on the street, office to rear and house, which faces Packe St, is linked by a corridor. Main range is a high single storey and an unusual combination of a square which becomes an octagon surmounted by an octagonal pyramidal roof and large lantern with ogee lead covered dome and finial. Front is elaborate with a large central window with aedicule frontispiece surrounding it and ornamental turrets with open Agra-like lanterns at the corners above the triangular section formed by the change to the octagon. The whole has much terracotta decoration provided by the well-known and local firm of Hathernware. Rear ranges are plainer and have leaded-light, casement and sash windows. House has UPVC windows in original openings and a gabled front with a canted bay to left with leaded ogee pentice roof. Door to right under flat hood and windows over. Two gables face yard to left.
In the mid 1960's a large library extension was built on to the main range. This involved the demolition of most of the original porch at the side, but it is remarkable that the interference to the rest of the building was kept to a minimum and the original walls and even a window survives covered over in present cupboards in the link.
INTERIOR.
The main space survives unaltered and has Ionic half columns supporting the corner openings, an octagonal domed ceiling with plasterwork ribs, thermal windows with Art Nouveau style coloured glass and a huge central octagonal skylight with similar glass. The staircase hall survives with simple Art Nouveau iron balustrade to the staircase and coloured glass in the same style in the window above. The former reference library is the office for staff but remains unaltered and has a vaulted ceiling and also Art Nouveau detailed glass. The original lending library has been divided horizontally but retains the original ceiling. The house for the librarian, now storage, is linked by a corridor and the staircase, fireplaces, doors and other fittings survive.
HISTORY.
The original library in Loughborough which opened in 1886 had become completely inadequate and this one was built 1903-5 following the offer of a substantial part of the funds by Andrew Carnegie, the famous philanthropist, who was at the time providing money for the building of many libraries in this country.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE.
This is an imaginatively designed and finely detailed public library, including linked former librarian's house, of 1903-5 by Barrowcliff and Allcock of Loughborough. It is in an exuberant Baroque style, with the house to rear in Vernacular Revival style. The main range has an octagonal pyramidal roof and the elaborate front has much terracotta decoration and ornamental turrets at the corners. Inside the main space survives unaltered and has an octagonal domed ceiling with plasterwork ribs, thermal windows with Art Nouveau style coloured glass and a huge central octagonal skylight with similar glass. Other areas retain good fittings and Art Nouveau style glass. The house for the librarian, now storage, is linked by a corridor and here the staircase, fireplaces, doors and other fittings survive.
Although there was a large extension added in the mid 1960's, this impinges only minimally on the original building.

SOURCE.
The Municipal Journal, July 28, 1905, p.837-8.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Loughborough Library official website
• Wikidata Q26671297

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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