BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY

BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE HEATH 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:: 1391330
Date first listed:: 14-Jan-2005
List Entry Name:: BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY
Statutory Address:: BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE HEATH ROAD

User submitted image — Uploaded by Charles Watson This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1391330
Date first listed:: 14-Jan-2005
List Entry Name:: BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY
Statutory Address 1:: BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE HEATH 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:: BETHNAL GREEN LIBRARY, CAMBRIDGE HEATH ROAD

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Tower Hamlets (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 35116 82632

Details

788/0/10192 CAMBRIDGE HEATH ROAD Bethnal Green Library

II Public library. 1921 conversion by borough architect A.E.Darby of 1896 former Bethnal House Asylum. Red brick and yellow stock brick to side elevations with gauged brick and terra cotta detailing; hipped tiled roof to front range with partly glazed ceiling and raised ridge lantern over rear range; wooden sash windows. Late Victorian Classical exterior with inter-war library interior in the mid-C18 Adam-inspired style. EXTERIOR: 15-bay two-storey facade of red brick with gauged brick flat arches with keyblocks and Ionic pilasters of rubbed brick defining the first floor bays. Central advanced 2-storey frontispiece with segmental pediment, Ionic pilasters flanking central arched window at first floor, and rusticated ground floor with paired terra cotta pilasters under 'PUBLIC LIBRARY' lettering over door. North return elevation has 2-storey semi-elliptical bay fully of rubbed brick, rusticated and with Ionic pilasters and balustrade to first floor. This joins to the main wall with re-entrant oriel, and then secondary entrance bay slightly advanced and with quoins and rusticated ground floor. To rear, similarly detailed and attached to other buildings not included in the listing. INTERIOR: Library plan form survives. Entrance hall is lined with high quality Classical panelling with Ionic pilasters and pedimented doorcases, here also the plaque commemorating the October 1922 opening. This flanked by 2 main reading rooms at the front (former Newspaper and Magazine Reading Room to south and Juveniles Reading room to north) that retain their beamed ceilings with delicate Adam style plaster and pedimented doorcases. Main lending library to rear entered by curved wickets and barriers ornamented with Ionic pilasters and leaded panes, attached to the main counters; perimeter shelving survives but the original radiating free-standing shelves have been replaced; segemental profile ceiling with oculus to centre below large panels of 25 window panes, that to centre with circular fanlight, and central row with oculi and Classical plaster swags to edge; 4 plaster medallions in curved niche behind colonnade (Richard Wagner, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and William Morris) commemorate interesting choice of cultural heroes. To north, staff rooms with wide metal baluster stair and librarian's room with fireplace and similar plaster ceiling. First floor Lecture Hall with similar ceiling and small stage flanked by Ionic pilasters with the borough badge. The former Reference room to south has perimeter shelving, pedimented door cases and similar plaster ceiling. Large area of lavatories with tiling and glazed partitions. At top of rear stairs, a Venetian window with War Memorial representing 'Motherhood', 'Peace' and 'Manhood' in the stained glass. HISTORY: The Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green did not pass the Public Library Act until 1913, subsequently preparing plans for a new library by the borough engineer and surveyor A.E. Darby in 1915. However, WWI intervened and the prohibitive rise in building costs afterwards resulted in their constructing instead a temporary institution in 1919. When soon afterwards deciding to undertake a permanent institution, the borough purchased part of the Bethnal House Asylum Estate, the former male wing that had been built in 1896. A.E. Darby instead designed the conversion of what was a much larger facility, including an Adult Lending, Reference and Children's libraries, as well as a Lecture Hall and Newsroom. It cost £36,000 and was built by Messrs. Patman and Fotheringham, with G.W. Hammer & Co. supplying the furniture. It was opened by the Mayor, Councillor J.J. Vaughan on Oct.13th 1922 who commented that with the new library, 'the Council was handing down to future generations a legacy which would enable them to obtain knowledge and sweep away misery and poverty.' ('Thirty Years: Bethnal Green Public Library').

An unusually intact inter-war London library designed by borough architect A.E. Darby within a converted 1896 asylum building. It retains its 1922 library plan form and high-quality Classical interior, which includes the top-lit reading room with high quality wickets, other panelled and Adam-style plaster rooms, unusual plaster medallions to cultural heroes and a fine War Memorial window.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 25 October 2017.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 491805
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 25 October 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/250701
War Memorials Register, accessed 25 October 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/18055

Legal

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