Latitude: 58.9595 / 58°57'34"N
Longitude: -3.301 / 3°18'3"W
OS Eastings: 325266
OS Northings: 1008756
OS Grid: HY252087
Mapcode National: GBR L561.QL1
Mapcode Global: WH6B1.82BF
Plus Code: 9CCRXM5X+QH
Entry Name: Stromness Public Library, 2 Hellihole Road, Stromness
Listing Name: 2 Hellihole Road, Stromness Public Library
Listing Date: 24 March 1998
Category: C
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 392274
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB45399
Building Class: Cultural
ID on this website: 200392274
Location: Stromness
County: Orkney Islands
Town: Stromness
Electoral Ward: Stromness and South Isles
Traditional County: Orkney
Tagged with: Library building
Dated 1905. 2-storey, 3-bay symmetrical plain rectangular-plan library with Tudor-gothic details; gabletted 1st floor windows; built on ground rising to W. Harled with polished sandstone ashlar dressings. Hood moulds over windows; stone mullions and cills; ball-finialled gablets.
N (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: stone step to 2-leaf, architraved timber panelled door with rectangular fanlight at ground in bay to centre; part-glazed timber panelled 2-leaf vestibule doors; window, hugging eaves, at 1st floor above. Bipartite window at each floor in each bay flanking.
E (SIDE) ELEVATION: 2-bay, gabled wall. Window at each floor in each bay. Consoled commemorative plaque set between 1st floor windows, beneath corbelled stack to gable.
2-pane timber sash and case windows with stained glass small-pane top lights. Grey slate roof; decorative pierced red clay ridge; red clay finials; concrete skews; harled, coped gablehead stacks to E and W; cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative brackets and hoppers.
INTERIOR: open-plan interior at ground with timber reception desk to centre; boarded dado in entrance hall and up stairs; turned timber newel posts with large ball finials; turned timber banisters; timber handrails; architraved timber panelled doors; converted as art gallery at 1st floor; cornices and timber skirting boards extant throughout.
The commemorative plaque to the W gable is inscribed, "STROMNESS PUBLIC LIBRARY, THE GIFT OF THE LATE MARJORY SKEA, OR CORRIGAL, STROMNESS, 1905". Around 1820 a public library was first established in Stromness and was kept up by subscriptions of 7s. annually. It was then taken over by the Town Council, under the Libraries Act and, through a legacy from Mrs Skea, the present building was erected.
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