The architecture of Hereford Library

Hereford City Library is a narrow-coursed stone building with ashlar dressings. It consists of three storeys, attics and a basement.

On the second and third storeys there are seven gothic-style pointed arched windows in a two-three-two formation. On the second course there is also a cantilevered stone balcony (cantilevered means that it is supported by a large stone bracket). The ground floor has five large pointed arches, four of which are used as display windows. The middle arch forms the entrance.

The roof is of slate, half-hipped and with large symmetrically-placed end chimneys. The main body of the library is constructed in blue-grey sandstone from Pontypridd, South Wales. The creamy-coloured window dressings are limestone from Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. The orange-coloured columns that make up each of the four arches on the ground floor originate from near Cardiff. It has been suggested that this stone has been used as it shows the sediment of the rock and these represent the sediments of the earth upon which the living world is resting - here represented by the animal and plant carvings above. (See Building Stones Trail - Hereford City Centre, Herefordshire & Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust Guide.)

The architecture of the library has been described as "Anglicised Venetian Gothic" and the front is intricately carved, depicting various animals, foliage and symbols.

Around the doorway to the library are animals including the water shrew, mallangong (Australian platypus), beaver, hippopotamus, walrus, sea elephant (the elephant seal), rhinoceros, tapir (an odd-toed hoofed animal, found in South America and Malaysia), sea leopard (a spotted seal), otter and water rat. In the lower niches are carvings of: the frigate bird, kangaroo, beetle, auk owl, monkey, pangolin (scaly ant-eater), butterfly, armadillo, frog snake and kingfisher.

The capitals of the four great pillars on the ground floor have carvings of animals that represent the four continents of Europe, America, Asia and Africa. For Europe there are squirrels; for America there are cockatoos, toucan and possum; for Asia there are monkeys; and for Africa there are crocodiles and waterfowl. The mouldings between the pillars show a crab, a bat and foliage.

In between each of the arches are four medallions with carvings to represent Science, Art, the arms of the city and the arms of Mr. Rankin. The Science and Art medallions may refer to what can be studied within the Library, and the arms of the city and of Mr. Rankin the people whose donations and time made such learning possible.

The string course dividing the first and second floors is decorated with each of the twelve signs of the zodiac, as well as a pictorial depiction of each one (e.g. scales for Libra). The upper string course has animals of the hunt, including rabbits, a dog, a fox, a wild cat, birds and owls. At either end of the second course are the heads of a seal and a lion. These may represent Lord Saye and Seale and the corporation of Hereford whose crest features a lion.

At the ends of the third floor are the heads of a bull (which represents Dr. Henry Graves Bull, acting Vice President of the Library Committee) surrounded by mushrooms (Bull enjoyed studying fungi), and a goat which is the crest of architects and probably represents Mr. Kempson, the architect of Hereford Library.

It has been suggested that the elephant and four-tusked barbiroussa represent the patient plodding that is required to gain knowledge.

Finally the façade is completed by a series of decorative animals, including a monkey playing a musical instrument.

For further information, see An Ornament of the City, 125 Years of Hereford Free Library and Museum, by I. Churcher, R. Hill and C. Robinson, published by Herefordshire Council in 1999.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2003]