Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3086SW MANOR GARDENS
635-1/21/615 (South side)
North Library and attached gate
piers and railings

II

Public library, originally known as North Islington Library.
1905-6. By Henry T.Hare. Red and yellow brick set in English
bond with dressings of Portland stone, and roof of slate.
Three storeys over basement, seven-window range to main front,
with lower porch wing of one-window range to right. Apart from
the porch, the building is symmetrical with pedimented outer
bays. Casement windows throughout with original leaded
glazing. Round-arched entrance to porch consisting of
pilasters and moulded stone archivolt with double keystone,
set in a rectangular architrave with festoons in the
spandrels; cornice with lettered panel to parapet 'PUBLIC
LIBRARY'; the porch is cross-vaulted with a shallow domed apse
to right and two flat-arched architraves with keystones facing
the entrance, one for a door, the other for the foundation
stone; first floor of porch wing set back with flat-arched
window with moulded stone architrave and parapet with stone
coping swept up to main block. This has a base of Portland
stone; outer bays stepped forward twice with rainwater goods
in re-entrant angle; keyed oculus to ground floor; storey
band; flat-arched window to first floor with eared architrave
and plain stone apron; flush stone quoins; modillion cornice
to broken pediment with central cartouche and festoons;
stepped parapet behind pediment. The centre of the building
has, on the ground floor, a sequence of double brick Doric
pilasters with stone courses supporting stone entablature with
pulvinated frieze and dentil cornice; set back between the
pilasters are five flat-arched windows with mullions and
transoms and moulded stone architraves; the windows read as a
continuous screen by comparison with the first floor which has
five small flat-arched windows with eared architraves and
festoons as aprons; the modillion cornice continues to the
eaves; roof of graded slate with five dormers alternating
between segmental and triangular pediments; central lantern
with pediments to all four sides and ogee roof with delicate
finial and weather vane. Stacks to apex of stone-coped gables,
with stone courses and cornice. Rear apsidal elevation of
yellow brick with red brick dressings and shallow buttresses.
Brick gate piers in front of porch with stone caps; area
railings with urn standards and spike finials.
INTERIOR: : entrance hall panelled in fine grey stone,
terrazzo floor, ceiling barrel-vaulted in the centre and
cross-vaulted at either end. Ground-floor front room,
originally the children's library, has a coffered ceiling and
dentil cornice; round-arched arcade, now unmoulded, to rear,
apsidal room, formerly the reading room, which has a
semi-circular arcade of four Doric columns and beams radiating
to the outer walls. Staircase with dado of fine grey stone and
dog-leg stair with stone balustrade to third flight and
landing. First-floor passage with terrazzo floor and
alternately cross- and barrel-vaulted ceiling; former lecture
room to front with segmental vaulted ceiling panelled with
decorative plasterwork; rear apsidal room, now, as originally,
the lending library, with semi-circular arcade of four
Corinthian columns. The elaborate wooden architraves to doors,
some pedimented, with original panelled and glazed doors and
original door furniture, survive generally throughout the
building.
(Amian L.Champneys: Public libraries: London: 1907-: P.130).

Listing NGR: TQ3030586287

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26490251

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5