Description

IN THE ENTRY FOR THE FOLLOWING:

WHEELER STREET
1.
942
(north side)
Public Library
(formerly listed
as Free Library)
TL 4458 SE 6/713 18.5.67

THE LIST DESCRIPTION SHALL BE AMENDED TO READ:

2. Library and former town hall. 1862 designed by Peck and Stephens with 1884
additions designed by G MacDonell in the Italianate style. Yellow gault brick
with ashlar dressings and hipped slate roofs. 2 storey. Main front, 11 bays with
central single storey ashlar entrance with Ionic columns supporting an entablature,
surmounted by the city coat-of-arms, and inscribed "1884, FREE LIBRARY". Round headed
doorway with double panel doors and fanlight. Eitherside 5 round headed margin light
sashes with moulded ashlar heads and a continuous impost band, above an ashlar cornice.
Upper floor has 10 similar round headed sashes with brick coupled Doric pilasters
between each window, the whole surmounted by an entablature. The junction with
Peas Hill, has a canted corner bay with small flat headed sashes and round windows
over, the upper floor has a loggia with 4 Ionic ashlar columns and a single round
headed doorway. The Peas Hill front, 4 bays, with slightly projecting entrance
bay defined by brick Doric pilasters with a round headed doorway with double panel
doors and fanlight. To the left a single flat headed casement and to the right
2 round headed margin light sashes with moulded heads and continuous impost band.
Above an ashlar cornice. Upper floor has 4 similar round headed sashes, with plain
coupled brick Doric pilasters between except for the window over the doorway which
has lightly projecting Doric pilasters, with 2 inset Ionic ashlar columns. INTERIOR:
The Central Junior Library contains a stone early/mid C16 fireplace from John Vesey's
House (RCHM). Library store retains original decoration including all original
fitted book cases, with iron gallery, for upper access, with elegant iron balustrade
and small iron spiral staircase. The rotunda has 8 tall marble columns arranged
in a hexagon, with 4 extra columns, one at each corner, and pilasters on the walls.
Each column has an ornate Corinthian capital, and ornately decorated sections of
entablature above. The columns support 8 round arches with bracketted keystones.
Above a narrow clerestory, then a shallow circular dome with plaster panels, and
a central glazed cupola. Town hall is 5 bays and 2 storeys, apsidal ended, built
in 1862 by Peck and Stephens. Decorated with broad pilaster strips with blank panels,
those on the upper floor with round heads, projecting entablature divides floors,
upper windows have balustrades over the cills, and similar entablature at impost
level, with plain coved plaster ceiling above. North end has narrow upper gallery
supported on iron columns with central round headed panel containing city coat-of-arms.
South apsidal end has raised stage with stepped and curved seating platforms behind.
Above a canted organ with elaborate wooden casing and exposed pipes.

------------------------------------

WHEELER STREET
1.
942
(North Side)
--------------
Public Library
(Formerly listed as
Free Library)
TL 4458 SE 6/713 18.5.67.
II
2.
1862. By Peck and Stephens, with the rotunda added in 1884 by G MacDonell.
Grey gault brick in an Italianate style. 5 round-headed bays on either
side of a triumphal entry. Doorway flanked by unfluted Ionic half-columns.
Achievement over the door. Sash windows in the arches. The rotunda is
supported inside by marble columns with composite art-nouveau caps. In
the Central Junior Library is a early/mid C16 stone fireplace from John
Veysy's house. (RCHM 86).

Listing NGR: TL4491858368

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26616785

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)