Public Library
PUBLIC LIBRARY, WHEELER 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:
- 1331932
- Date first listed:
- 18-May-1967
- List Entry Name:
- Public Library
- Statutory Address:
- PUBLIC LIBRARY, WHEELER STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2006-04-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/15446/15
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter D. Dewar. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1331932
- Date first listed:
- 18-May-1967
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 02-Nov-1972
- List Entry Name:
- Public Library
- Statutory Address 1:
- PUBLIC LIBRARY, WHEELER 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:
- PUBLIC LIBRARY, WHEELER STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Cambridgeshire
- District:
- Cambridge (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 44918 58368
Details
IN THE ENTRY FOR THE FOLLOWING:
WHEELER STREET 1. 942 (north side) Public Library (formerly listed as Free Library) TL 4458 SE 6/713 18.5.67
THE LIST DESCRIPTION SHALL BE AMENDED TO READ:
2. Library and former town hall. 1862 designed by Peck and Stephens with 1884 additions designed by G MacDonell in the Italianate style. Yellow gault brick with ashlar dressings and hipped slate roofs. 2 storey. Main front, 11 bays with central single storey ashlar entrance with Ionic columns supporting an entablature, surmounted by the city coat-of-arms, and inscribed "1884, FREE LIBRARY". Round headed doorway with double panel doors and fanlight. Eitherside 5 round headed margin light sashes with moulded ashlar heads and a continuous impost band, above an ashlar cornice. Upper floor has 10 similar round headed sashes with brick coupled Doric pilasters between each window, the whole surmounted by an entablature. The junction with Peas Hill, has a canted corner bay with small flat headed sashes and round windows over, the upper floor has a loggia with 4 Ionic ashlar columns and a single round headed doorway. The Peas Hill front, 4 bays, with slightly projecting entrance bay defined by brick Doric pilasters with a round headed doorway with double panel doors and fanlight. To the left a single flat headed casement and to the right 2 round headed margin light sashes with moulded heads and continuous impost band. Above an ashlar cornice. Upper floor has 4 similar round headed sashes, with plain coupled brick Doric pilasters between except for the window over the doorway which has lightly projecting Doric pilasters, with 2 inset Ionic ashlar columns. INTERIOR: The Central Junior Library contains a stone early/mid C16 fireplace from John Vesey's House (RCHM). Library store retains original decoration including all original fitted book cases, with iron gallery, for upper access, with elegant iron balustrade and small iron spiral staircase. The rotunda has 8 tall marble columns arranged in a hexagon, with 4 extra columns, one at each corner, and pilasters on the walls. Each column has an ornate Corinthian capital, and ornately decorated sections of entablature above. The columns support 8 round arches with bracketted keystones. Above a narrow clerestory, then a shallow circular dome with plaster panels, and a central glazed cupola. Town hall is 5 bays and 2 storeys, apsidal ended, built in 1862 by Peck and Stephens. Decorated with broad pilaster strips with blank panels, those on the upper floor with round heads, projecting entablature divides floors, upper windows have balustrades over the cills, and similar entablature at impost level, with plain coved plaster ceiling above. North end has narrow upper gallery supported on iron columns with central round headed panel containing city coat-of-arms. South apsidal end has raised stage with stepped and curved seating platforms behind. Above a canted organ with elaborate wooden casing and exposed pipes.
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WHEELER STREET 1. 942 (North Side) -------------- Public Library (Formerly listed as Free Library) TL 4458 SE 6/713 18.5.67. II 2. 1862. By Peck and Stephens, with the rotunda added in 1884 by G MacDonell. Grey gault brick in an Italianate style. 5 round-headed bays on either side of a triumphal entry. Doorway flanked by unfluted Ionic half-columns. Achievement over the door. Sash windows in the arches. The rotunda is supported inside by marble columns with composite art-nouveau caps. In the Central Junior Library is a early/mid C16 stone fireplace from John Veysy's house. (RCHM 86).
Listing NGR: TL4491858368
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 47891
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge, (1959)
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 09-Jun-2026 at 20:06:31.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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