Carnegie Library

Details

788/0/10200 STRATTONDALE STREET 31-JAN-06 Isle of Dogs Carnegie Library

II Public Library. Opened May 1905 to the designs of C. Harrold Norton of Bloomsbury. Builders, Messrs Watts, Johnson & Company. Bath stone from Monk's Park quarries facade with London stock brick to the rear. Steeped hipped slate roofs, and copper covering to cupola. Rectangular front section of main floor with attic faces Strattondale Street, with lower single-storey wings to rear around later-filled yard. EXTERIORS: Free Classical style facade with tall ground floor under projecting cornice then pronounced attic storey with low parapet announcing 'Carnegie Public Library'. Tall hipped roof to front section with central cupola flanked by pair of stone chimneys on front slope. The facade has a central entrance flanked by 3 1/2 window bays, these defined by panelled piers. The entrance is rusticated with shallow segmental pediment under oeil-de-boeuf windows with floral swags and a wide semi-circular first floor arched windows under a raised pediment. Entablature carries the words PUBLIC LIBRARY. Entrance to caretaker's flat in west return. The rear is of stock brick with flat arches over tall windows. To east is attached community centre of the early 1960s by Welch and Lander, which is not of special interest. Small yard to rear was mostly infilled with flat roofed extension in the late-C20. INTERIORS: Original plan remains largely readable with the news room to the right, and reference and magazine room to the rear, this top lit with and octagonal lantern with clerestory lights with replaced C20 windows and moulded cornice. There are panelled pilasters and the rooms are lit by clerestory windows to the rear. The counter to the lending library, the large room to the left hand side, has been removed. The glazed partitions to the office survive at the front, as does the entrance vestibule. The panelled pilasters throughout the ground floor, and the deep ceiling beams help to define the plan of the original building. The ground floor is light and airy, lit by the clerestory windows around the perimeter, a well as the dome to the rear. Original stair in front corner to first floor, which housed caretaker's flat, now offices with shallow range of rooms to front and corridor. HISTORY: The Public Library in Strattondale Street, Cubitt Town was opened in January 1905, with funding from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The site in Cubitt Town was acquired by Lady Margaret Charteris, and the Borough Surveyor and Librarian drew up a draft plan of the accommodation required. The architect C. Harrold Norton of Bloomsbury was chosen to execute the design. The library facilities were on the ground floor, with a caretaker's flat above. Most of the ceiling in the lending department fell to the floor around 1912, and the building suffered some bomb damage during WWII. The newspaper room to the right was slightly altered and a community hall was added to this side in the 1962 by Welch and Lander; the latter is not of special interest. When the library was built, much of the 1840s and later William Cubitt development in the Isle of Dogs survived, and the library fulfilled a strong social function in this largely docklands and industrial part of London. Most of the earlier buildings were destroyed in WWII bombing, and this is thus a rare surviving pre-war building in this important docklands area.

SOURCES: Survey of London volume 14, pp.504-5 Buildings of England London 5:East p.705 The Building News 13 October 1905 p.507

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

493790

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, O'Brien, C, The Buildings of England: London 5 East, (2005)
The Building News in 13 October, (1905), 507
Survey of London in The Parish of St Margaret Westminster Part 3 Neighbourhood of Whitehall Volume 2:Volume 14 , (1931), 504-5

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