Childrens Library
CHILDRENS LIBRARY, NEW 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:
- 1298369
- Date first listed:
- 13-Mar-1995
- List Entry Name:
- Childrens Library
- Statutory Address:
- CHILDRENS LIBRARY, NEW STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-07-04
- Reference:
- IOE01/12816/03
- Rights:
- © Mr Chris Thoume. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1298369
- Date first listed:
- 13-Mar-1995
- List Entry Name:
- Childrens Library
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHILDRENS LIBRARY, NEW 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:
- CHILDRENS LIBRARY, NEW STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Lancashire
- District:
- Lancaster (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SD 47602 61786
Details
LANCASTER
SD4761NE NEW STREET 1685-1/7/214 (East side) Children's Library
GV II
Public library. 1932, incorporating part of the facade of the former Savings Bank, which dated from the 1820s. For the Borough of Lancaster. Sandstone ashlar, with a flat roof and skylight. Roughly square plan, linked at the right at the rear with the Public Library (qv) on Market Street. One-storey, 3-bay facade with a central dorway flanked by 2 pairs of fluted Greek Ionic columns, each placed in antis. The antae and doorway have a frieze decorated with a Greek key motif and date from 1932. The columns, which date from the 1820s, stand on a fluted plinth and carry a deep entablature with a dentil cornice, above which the projecting centre of the blocking course is decorated with scrollwork. The doorway is flanked by Doric pilasters carrying a pediment above a panel with the inscription in raised letters: 'PUBLIC LIBRARY JUNIORS', and the double doors have 3 raised and fielded panels each. The recesses behind the columns have tripartite windows whose mullions are panelled pilasters which carry an entablature with a dentil cornice. In front of the columns is a balustrade of ornamental iron work. Listed in part as the only significant surviving example in Lancaster of Greek Revival design. HISTORY: an elevation drawing in Lancaster Reference Library (PL 2/64) by Sharpe and Paley, dated 4-2-1848 shows a facade resembling the one which now survives, but without windows and with a central doorway. It is entitled 'Plans for the Alteration of the Savings Bank' and is probably a survey drawing rather than a new design, as the 5 feet to 1 mile OS map, surveyed in 1845, shows the Savings Bank with a similar recessed facade. The bank was established in 1823, and it is possible that the original design was by William Coulthart, a pupil of George Webster of Kendal, who was practising as an architect in Lancaster during the 1820s and who is known to have produced other work in the Greek Revival style. In 1932 the facade was rebuilt on the New Street Improvement Line, 12 feet back from its original position.
Listing NGR: SD4760261786
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 383244
- Legacy System:
- LBS
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 01-Jul-2026 at 21:04:46.
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