PUBLIC LIBRARY

PUBLIC LIBRARY, BRUNSWICK ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1245965
Date first listed:: 12-Mar-1973
List Entry Name:: PUBLIC LIBRARY
Statutory Address:: PUBLIC LIBRARY, BRUNSWICK ROAD

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Date:: 2000-08-15
Reference:: IOE01/02635/21
Rights:: © Mr Jack Farley. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1245965
Date first listed:: 12-Mar-1973
Date of most recent amendment:: 15-Dec-1998
List Entry Name:: PUBLIC LIBRARY
Statutory Address 1:: PUBLIC LIBRARY, BRUNSWICK ROAD

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: PUBLIC LIBRARY, BRUNSWICK ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Gloucestershire
District:: Gloucester (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SO 83222 18302

Details

GLOUCESTER

SO8318SW BRUNSWICK ROAD 844-1/12/26 (West side) 12/03/73 Public Library (Formerly Listed as: BRUNSWICK ROAD (West side) City Library)

II

Schools of Science and Art and a museum, now a public library. 1872, by Fulljames, Waller and Son for the Gloucester Science and Art Society and funded mainly by subscribers; converted and extended to the south as public library, 1897-1900, by FW Waller and Son for the Corporation of the City of Gloucester. MATERIALS: squared rock-faced rubble in courses with ashlar features and details, coped gables with kneelers, red tile roof with decorative courses and an upper zone of diaper in blue tiles, gabled dormers, stone stacks. STYLE: C13 Gothic, inspired by the work of GE Street. PLAN: a double-depth range of five bays parallel with street, with a cross-gabled, right-angle range at each end; at the right hand end the right-angle range and two bays to the left are the earlier building. EXTERIOR: two storeys and cellars, chamfered offset plinth; on the front to right the original entrance doorway in the bay to left of the north cross-gabled range: above the doorway an arched canopy within an applied gable supported on corbels, the archivolt of the arch decorated with blind foils; the doorway, framed by nook shafts with foliated capitals and a moulded arch, has a Caernarvon-arched lintel and a foiled window in the tympanum; in the wider bay to right of the south cross-gabled range a similar doorway with arcading framed by miniature buttresses recessed on each side of the upper part of the canopy gable, and on either side a single-light window with a transom and trefoiled head. In each of the three bays between the doorways a slight, full-height recess; each recess on the ground-floor frames a three-light arched window with a transom and with trefoiled heads to the upper lights, and on the first floor, including the two doorway bays, a two-light arched window rising into a dormer gable with a shaft applied to the central mullion and trefoiled heads to the lights, and with a blind, circular, foiled recess with a carved central boss in the tympanum of the window arch. The gable of the front gable wall to the right-hand cross

range has convex curves reflecting the curved roof with skylights over the range; weathered offsets on either side of the upper part of the gable wall rise in steps to the base of a tall gable-end stack; on the ground floor two, two-light, trefoil arched windows each with a transom, a quatrefoil light in the head of the arch, and a hoodmould; at first-floor level a central, corbelled statue niche with flanking shafts and a projecting gablet to the hood. The front gable wall to the left-hand cross range has a central four-light window, the lights of the same height with transom and trefoiled heads, below a relieving arch; on each side a similar-single light window; at first-floor level a panel inscribed "PUBLIC LIBRARY" forms the apron for a tall four-light window with transom and trefoiled heads to the lights; the frame of the window is crowned by a blind, cinquefoiled arch enclosing an armorial shield. The south end elevation is similar to the central bays of the front. In the centre of the ridge of the roof of the south range a timber fleche with copper spire, probably the fleche originally placed above the roof ridge over the entrance bay at the north end for which the seating remains. INTERIOR: the most notable feature is the 'quasi-hammerbeam' arrangment in the main reading room which is braced out in order to support glazed 'atrium' roof; composite roof with wrought-iron tension bracing to upper floor reference library. (BOE: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1976-: 240; VCH: The City of Gloucester: Oxford: 1988-: 214, 233; The Builder: June 17, 1871: London: 467).

Listing NGR: SO8322218302

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 472107
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1988), 214, 233
Verey, D , The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 The Vale and The Forest of Dean, (1970), 240
'The Builder' in June 17, (1871), 467

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.