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The accommodation provided comprises the following rooms:—
On the Ground Floor-
Lending Library, with shelving for 22,000 volumes.
News Room, 60 feet by 25 feet.
Magazine Room, 44 feet by 25 feet.
Boys' Room, 15 feet 6 inches by 25 feet.
Also Staff Rooms, &c
On the First Floor-
Reference Library, 60 feet by 25 feet, with book-cases for 5,000
volumes.
Stack Room, with shelving for 10,000 volumes.
Committee Room.
Residence for Sub-Librarian.
In the basement is the heating chamber and filing room.
The general arrangement of these rooms has been designed especially
with a view to facility and economy of working, and efficient supervision.
All parts of the building are abundantly lighted and ventilated.
Externally the building is faced with best red bricks,with Portland stone
dressings, and the roofs are covered with Precelly slates of varied sizes
and colour. The main front possesses a somewhat unusual feature in two
large statues of Shakespeare and Milton, and is further adorned with other
low-relief sculptures representing art, science, literature and commerce.
The whole of the floors throughout ara of fireproof construction.
The joinery, fittings and furniture in all the public rooms is of
wainscot oak, fumigated and slightly wax polished The entrance hall is
paved with black and white marble slabs, and the walls are lined with
polished Hopton wood stone, of which material the main staircase is also
constructed.
The upper landing, or corridor, has a groined and vaulted ceiling, and
is paved with Hopton wood stone and marble.
The Reference Library is a fine room, with a vaulted ceiling in plaster.
The central portion is lighted from the top, and there is also a large
window at each end. These windows, together with those on the main
staircase, are filled with stained glass, mostly presented by members of the
Committee. The staircase windows contain medallions of Spenser,
Chaucer, Erasmus, and Bacon ; the west window of the Reference Library
contains the Borough Arms and those of Sir Nicholas Crisp. The east
window in the same room, presented by Rev. R. J. Walker contains a
full-length portrait of Dean Colet, and is a very fine piece of work, which
adds much to the interest and dignity of the room.
The heating is by low-pressure hot water, with ventilating radiators
fixed in various positions as required. Extraction of foul air is provided
for by an electric fan in the roof, connected by flues with the various
rooms.
It has been the aim of the Committee to make the Library reflect, in some
measure, the past history of the Borough, and with this object in view it has
selected the names of twelve former inhabitants who had achieved distinction in
the world of Art, Literature or Science. These, with the dates of birth and
death, have been placed on the walls of the Reference Library.