Description

SHEFFIELD

SK38NE LONDON ROAD
784-1/6/482 (East side)
Highfield Library and adjoining
librarian's house

GV II

Includes: Nos.20 AND 22 ST BARNABAS ROAD.
Public library and adjoining librarian's house, now advice
centre. 1876, with late C20 alterations. By E Mitchell Gibbs.
Brick with ashlar dressings and gabled and hipped slate roofs,
the main roof topped with a truncated square turret.
Italianate style. T-plan.
EXTERIOR: plinth, first floor and sillbands, first floor
impost band, modillion eaves cornice, coped parapet and gables
with finials. 2 storeys; 6 window range. Square 2 storey
central porch with pyramidal roof and finial. 2 round-arched
double windows with roundels in tympanums, and hoodmoulds.
Ashlar doorcase with figure brackets carrying a cornice topped
with a pierced balustrade forming a balcony. Round-arched
recess framing C20 double doors, with inscription on lintel
and quotation from Carlyle in the tympanum. Each return has on
the first floor a round-arched double window with central
shaft and a roundel in the tympanum. Below, a stone mullioned
cross casement.
Beyond, on either side, 2 round-arched double windows with
central shafts, and roundels above. Below, 2 stone mullioned
cross casements.
Left return gable has a canted ashlar oriel window carried on
a massive bracket with segmental arch, with modillion eaves
and hipped roof behind blocking course. Double window with
roundel above, flanked by single lights, also with roundels.
Beyond, on either side, a similar single light with roundel.
All these lights have round heads. Below, a cross casement
with flush mullion, and on either side, a single flat-headed
light with transom.
Beyond, to left, former librarian's house, now advice centre.
2 storeys plus attics; 3 window range. Plinth, first floor
sillband, string course, eaves band, coped gables with
kneelers, single gable stack. Openings have raised stone
surrounds. 3 plain sashes and above, to right, a gable with a
smaller plain sash. Central half-glazed door with overlight,
flanked to left by a plain sash and to right by a canted stone
bay window with 3 plain sashes and hipped roof. To right , a
single storey link with a coped gable and finial. Stone
mullioned cross casement with raised surround under stepped
string course.
Right return gable has a square 2 storey bay window with
modillion eaves and hipped roof. Blank front, with a single
round-arched light and roundel in each return. Below, in each
return, a single flat-headed light with transom. In each gable
peak, a 2-light louvred opening with flush mullion.
Rear has 6 wooden framed round-arched windows.
INTERIOR refitted late C20.
The design is almost identical to Upperthorpe Public Library
(qv), also by E Mitchell Gibbs.

Listing NGR: SK3505385688

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26561274

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)