Description

SW 8032 NE
843-1/7/203

FALMOUTH,
THE MOOR (North West side),
Falmouth Art Gallery and Library (Passmore Edwards Free Library)

16/12/94

GV

II

Free library, council chamber and science and art school, now
library and art gallery. 1896, by WH Tresidder; patrons J
Passmore Edwards and Octavius Allen Ferris. Squared grey
limestone with granite dressings including rock-faced plinth,
ashlar pilasters, moulded strings and sills, jambs, arches,
copings and finials; dry Delabole slate roofs with gabled
cross wings with stepped finials; central octagonal lantern
with lead dome on open Tuscan colonnade.
PLAN: (original use): large irregular roughly square plan with
loggia and vestibule to large stair hall with imperial
staircase; newspaper and reading room behind stair hall;
offices and strong room to cross wing on the left; lending
library, small librarian's room, wider reference library,
service stair, caretaker's accommodation and rear passage to
cross wing on the right; cross passages flanking reading room.
1st floor has small science room and cloakroom in front of
landing; council chamber and mayor's parlour on the left and
science rooms on the right. Eclectic style combining
Italianate, Renaissance, neo-classical and Flemish details.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; symmetrical 1:3:1-bay front. Cross wings
have Venetian windows with inscriptions above framed by
panelled pilasters, linked by 4 strings and surmounted by
finials, and keyed round arch to 1st floor, and paired
segmental-arched windows to ground floor; flanking end
pilasters to each floor. Central distyle-in-antae Tuscan
loggia; roll-moulded granite doorway with original pair of
panelled doors behind, flanked by segmental-arched windows;
moulded entablature above loggia (with name inscribed to
frieze) surmounted by squat turned balustrade. 1st floor has 3
strings over Venetian window flanked by pilasters and narrower
bays with round-arched windows. Casement windows to ground
floor, sashes to 1st floor; central lights of Venetian windows
of wings have glazing bars and spoked fanlight heads.
INTERIOR retains most of its original features including:
glazed screen between shallow vestibule and hall; granite
flagged hall floor; open-string staircase with turned
balusters and newels; moulded plaster ceiling cornices to
principal rooms, the stair hall and reading room with deep
coves, the reading room with 4 central panels; many panelled
doors.
The building was erected at a cost of £7,000, including £2,000
which was given by J Passmore Edwards and a bequest of £2,000
by Octavius Allen Ferris. Forms part of an important group in
the centre of Falmouth, including the former Town Hall (q.v.),
and comprises a good example of a Free Style library building
of the late C19.
(Best RS: The Life and Good Works of John Passmore Edwards:
Redruth: 1981-: 45; Kelly: Kelly's Directory of Cornwall:
London: 1910-: 105).

Listing NGR: SW8062032922

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Falmouth Municipal Buildings at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26560059

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)