Library, Museum and Art Gallery and Attached Railings
LIBRARY, MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, CLARENCE STREET, CHELTENHAM, GL50 3JT
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1386870
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-1983
- List Entry Name:
- Library, Museum and Art Gallery and Attached Railings
- Statutory Address:
- LIBRARY, MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, CLARENCE STREET, CHELTENHAM, GL50 3JT
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2000-11-03
- Reference:
- IOE01/03011/09
- Rights:
- © Mr David Ross. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1386870
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-1983
- List Entry Name:
- Library, Museum and Art Gallery and Attached Railings
- Statutory Address 1:
- LIBRARY, MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, CLARENCE STREET, CHELTENHAM, GL50 3JT
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:
- LIBRARY, MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, CLARENCE STREET, CHELTENHAM, GL50 3JT
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Gloucestershire
- District:
- Cheltenham (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SO 94727 22540
Details
SO9422NE
630-1/9/283
CHELTENHAM
CLARENCE STREET (North side)
Library, Museum and Art Gallery and attached railings
14/12/83
GV
II
Library, museum and art gallery with attached railings. Begun 1888-89. Architects: WH Knight and Chatters. Ashlar over brick with tile roof. Mixed Renaissance styles.
EXTERIOR: Two storeys on high plinth. Front subdivided, by pilasters, corner piers to central break, into 3:3:3:1:1 bays. Three stage tower to right with pepperpot corner finials and ogee cap. Central set back gable with statue of Shakespeare. Continuous stone balustrade at parapet with central memorial cartouche. Mullion and transom windows, those on first floor with arched transom lights and pedimented cornices. Centre piece has keyed segmental arch above stepped windows with Venetian tracery and engaged Ionic portico in antis below with arched door and flanking windows. Extra two-window, single-storey bay to right of tower. Entrance to Art Gallery in tower.
INTERIOR: retains original joinery and plasterwork including panelled doors and dogleg staircase with carved newels and shaped balusters. Library entrance hall at left has arched openings on moulded imposts.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: return to St George's Place has area railings with elongated pyramidal caps and taller stanchions, fluted bars. The modern extension to the south-east is not of special architectural or historic interest.
HISTORICAL NOTE: In 1899 Baron de Ferrieres donated to the town his collection of Old Master paintings and £1,500 towards an art gallery in which to display them. Originally the buildings served as both a free library and the schools of Art and Science, which upper rooms were, by 1907, occupied by the Museum.
Occupies a good corner site, forming part of a distinguished group of Victorian buildings (within the Regency new town) which include Church of St Matthew, Clarence Street (qv), and Electricity House (qv) and Shaftesbury Hall (qv), St George's Place.
Listing NGR: SO9474522536
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 474282
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Sampson, A, Blake, S, A Cheltenham Companion, (1993), 104
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 10-Jun-2026 at 16:16:00.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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