HERTFORD LIBRARY

HERTFORD LIBRARY, OLD CROSS

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1268834
Date first listed:: 09-Sep-1996
List Entry Name:: HERTFORD LIBRARY
Statutory Address:: HERTFORD LIBRARY, OLD CROSS

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Date:: 2000-09-10
Reference:: IOE01/02925/12
Rights:: © Mr A. Gude. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1268834
Date first listed:: 09-Sep-1996
List Entry Name:: HERTFORD LIBRARY
Statutory Address 1:: HERTFORD LIBRARY, OLD CROSS

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:: HERTFORD LIBRARY, OLD CROSS

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

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: East Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:: Hertford
National Grid Reference:: TL 32471 12704

Details

HERTFORD

TL3212NW OLD CROSS 817-1/16/148 (North side) Hertford Library

GV II

Library, built as public library and art school. 1888-90. Architect (Sir) Reginald Blomfield, for Hertford Borough Council. Orange brick laid to English bond below ornamental timber-framing and plaster. Old tiled roof, with studded gable facing south, twin tile-hung gables east and west, red brick chimney with oversailing courses. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, with attic in south gable. A mixture of Old English revival and Queen Anne styles. South elevation with central break forward rises from substantial plinth with moulded brick top. Single 6-light timber mullion and transom window with leaded glazing in metal casements to left, similar window in centre to left of entrance. Entrance doorway in right centre has twin leaf doors with 2 glazed upper panels, and raised and fielded lower panels recessed in bold architrave surround, broken by keyblock, with flat hood on profiled console brackets. Fanlight above with 4-leaded lights in 2 pairs, flanked and centrally divided by baluster columns with Ionic caps, immediately below continuous pulvinated wood frieze and cornice which runs around perimeter of building above head of ground-floor windows. First floor with ornamental studwork and plaster, rectangular panels left and right, with elaborate arcading in centre and in gable above. First floor 14-light mullion and transom window with leaded glazing. Moulded eaves cornice, bargeboards to gable with finial carrying weather vane. Left-side (west) elevation has similar ground floor with 4 windows and frieze. First floor with studwork in square panels with 2 large 18-light mullion and transom windows. These are set above twin studwork arches, and cut through eaves cornice into twin tile-hung gables above. Elaborate rainwater heads with boxes with rolled embattled lead tops and ogival lead hoppers. Between right-hand pair of ground-floor windows is South African (Boer) War Memorial, a recessed limestone panel engraved with the names of all volunteers from the Borough, with a carved hart in a circular surround. Outer surround limestone with splayed sill, moulded jambs and trefoil head, with Gothic worked dripmould. INTERIOR: dogleg main staircase with brick lower supports, stone balusters and railing, curved and ramped, with swelling

squat Ionic column supporting landing and wood-cased beam with pulvinated frieze. Stone steps, timber newels with elongated conical caps, painted softwood balusters of vase on column pattern, bold moulded hardwood handrail, arcaded first floor landing with Tuscan pillars with urn bases. Main library on ground floor divided into 4 bays by cased beams with coved mouldings. First-floor rooms former Art School. Foundation stone laid 9 August 1888 by AP McMullen, Mayor of Hertford. Externally a stone tablet records the planting of an oak tree (long since removed) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. (Green L: Hertford's Past in pictures: Ware: 1993-: 24-5; Architects in perspective: Fellows RA: Sir Reginald Blomfield: An Edwardian Architect: London: 1985-: 22-3, 171).

Listing NGR: TL3247112704

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 461423
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Fellows, R A, Sir Reginald Blomfield. An Edwardian Architect, (1985), 22-23 171
Green, L, Hertfords Past in Pictures, (1993), 24-25

Legal

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