Art Gallery and Attached Balustrades Former Public Library
ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED BALUSTRADES, BIRD STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1209580
- Date first listed:
- 11-Feb-1993
- List Entry Name:
- Art Gallery and Attached Balustrades Former Public Library
- Statutory Address:
- ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED BALUSTRADES, BIRD STREET
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-04-11
- Reference:
- IOE01/04918/12
- Rights:
- © Mr J J Sheridan. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1209580
- Date first listed:
- 11-Feb-1993
- List Entry Name:
- Art Gallery and Attached Balustrades Former Public Library
- Statutory Address 1:
- ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED BALUSTRADES, BIRD STREET
- Statutory Address 2:
- FORMER PUBLIC LIBRARY, BIRD STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED BALUSTRADES, BIRD STREET
- Statutory Address:
- FORMER PUBLIC LIBRARY, BIRD STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Staffordshire
- District:
- Lichfield (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Lichfield
- National Grid Reference:
- SK 11409 09629
Details
LICHFIELD
SK1109NW BIRD STREET 1094-1/4/38 (West side) 11/02/93 Former Public Library and Art Gallery and attached balustrades
GV II
Public library and museum. 1857-9. By Bidlake and Lovatt. Brick with buff brick facades, ashlar dressings; parapeted roof. Right-angle plan with inset octagonal entrance tower to angle to left. Renaissance style. 2 storeys with basement; 3-window range. Panelled brick plinth over basement; rusticated end piers and cornice to impost level and cornice over ground floor; top dentilled brick frieze and modillioned ashlar cornice. Entrance tower has rusticated piers and entablature to ground floor; high plinth and entablature to 1st floor, and cupola with dentilled cornice and domical vault with wind vane. Round-headed entrance has tall key to plain fanlight over C20 door; flanking round-headed windows with brick archivolts and ashlar keys; plinth has square ashlar plaque inscribed: FREE/ LIBRARY/ AND/ MUSEUM, flanking roundels; 1st floor has 3 round-headed windows; round-headed openings to cupola. 3-window range has windows with rubbed brick flat arches and 8-pane sashes with 2 ashlar antae with lotus capitals, tympana above have archivolts and keys; 1st floor has blind arcading of 3 pairs of round arches with ashlar colonnettes; two C20 buttresses with continuations of cornices. Left return facing Museum Gardens is 6-window range, the windows grouped in pairs with C20 buttresses between. Ashlar statue of sailor with HMS POWERFUL to his hat band on corbel to right end; said to date from the Boer War, origin unknown. Rear is simpler, with lean-to projection with blocked wide segmental-headed entrance and flanking niches. Right return is plain, with C20 addition to rear. Entrance tower flanked by low brick walls and ashlar balustrading of 4-centred arches, piers with chamfered angles, similar in style to those to causeway (qv). INTERIOR: geometrical stair with slender iron balusters and wreathed handrail; top-lit 1st floor. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: P.192; Clayton H: Cathedral City: Lichfield: 1977-: P.102-5).
Listing NGR: SK1140909629
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 382584
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Clayton, H, Cathedral City, (1977), 102-5
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Staffordshire, (1974), 192
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 20-Jun-2026 at 03:35:58.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.