Description

The following building shall be added:-

Boston Manor Road
TQ 1777 NE
(East Side)
14/231 Brentford Public Library
II GV

Library. 1903 by T H Nowell Parr, builder Joseph Dorey and Co; for Brentford
District Council; benefactor Andrew Carnegie. Yellow stock brick in English bond
with terracotta dressings; Welsh slate roof with tile ridges. 2 storey central
block of 3 bays flanked by single-storey wings. Plinth; sill band; frieze and
dentilled cornice to each floor; rusticated quoins to 1st floor; hipped roofs with
decorative, finialled, cupolas; tall corniced stacks. Windows have architraves;
wooden or terracotta mullions and transoms; and small-pane sashes and overlights,
some upper lights with round-arched glazing bars. Entrance elevation: central
block: projecting central bay has wide segmental-arched entrance with 4-panel door
and overlight flanked by glazed grey Ionic columns on tall plinths supporting
segmental pediment with date and benefactor's name and district's coat of arms
above; 3-light transomed window above, the central lower light segmental-headed.
Flanking windows on ground floor have foundation stones set below, and on 1st floor
have corbelled architraves with friezes and dentilled cornices. Left wing has two
2-light windows; cornice sweeps up at left corner to ball finial. Right wing has
canted bay window of 1, 2, 1 windows below parapet; 1-light flanking windows; ridge
lantern. Rear: central block has continuous 1st floor windows separated by pilaster
buttresses rising from below ground floor cornice; door and 3 windows to left wing;
transomed 3-light window and keyed oculus to right wing; tower with roof as cupolas
on right. Left return: wing, on right, has canted bay window as before, the parapet
containing small 2-light window with segmental pediment; flanking 1-light windows,
and door on left in corniced architrave. Inferior: entrance hall has tessellated
floor with coat of arms; teak staircase with coffered soffit, moulded balusters and
newels, and finials; on stair landing, marble Boer War memorial framed by Ionic
columns supporting cornice and pediment with coat of arms. Main library room has
pilasters supporting corniced cross-members; room above (formerly museum and lecture
room) has corbelled trusses and boarded ceiling; right wing (formerly newspaper
reading room) has braced king-post trusses and bronze portrait of Carnegie; left
wing (formerly reference library) has arch-braced, collared, principal rafter roof.

Listing NGR: TQ1760977763

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 30 October 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Brentford Library at Wikipedia
• Brentford Library official website
• Wikidata Q15461207

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings