Description

SOUTHWARK

TQ3179 BOROUGH ROAD
636-1/4/105 (North side)
No.12
St George the Martyr Library

II

Library. 1897-1899 by CJ Phipps and Arthur Blomfield Jackson.
For Passmore Edwards. Red brick and terracotta with a pitched,
tiled roof. Art Nouveau style.
PLAN: rectangular plan.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys over basement with dormer window to east
side. The main front, with its double-height central porch,
gives the impression of symmetry but the eastern half of the
building incorporates an attic floor and this is reflected in
the different spacings of the windows.
The upper part of the porch is clad in terracotta and has a
relief of St George slaying the dragon contained within the
shaped gable. Below that is a large 2-light, trefoil-headed
and traceried window which surmounts another elaborately
modelled terracotta plaque with the words 'Passmore Edwards
Public Library 1898' over the main entrance.
Bronze plaque commemorating Sir William Molesworth by Sir
George Frampton inside the porch. A similar plaque, in memory
of Henry Austen Layard, the Assyriologist and also an MP for
Southwark, was stolen in 1990.
The whole ground floor is pilastered, the run of pilasters
being terminated by corner buttresses ornamented by blind
tracery above the eaves. Second segmental-arched entrance to
right wing. Left return with shaped gable filled with shallow
terracotta relief; range of motifs similar to those on the
main elevation; broad segmental-arched and multi-light window
with transoms filling virtually the whole return: leaded
lights to upper windows, sashes to lower. Below wall
pilastered between corner buttresses. Right return plainer,
but still repeating shaped gable and traceried buttresses.
INTERIOR: not inspected.

Listing NGR: TQ3173879494

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26658779

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)