General view of Fountainbridge Public Library, 137 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, taken from the north-east.

Description General view of Fountainbridge Public Library, 137 Dundee Street, Edinburgh, taken from the north-east.

Date 29/10/2014

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number DP 203020

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content A library has stood on this site in Fountainbridge since 1897, when a hall and working men's library, designed by Henry Ramsay Taylor (1863/4-1922), opened as the West Branch Library. It was built using a bequest from the publisher Thomas Nelson (1822-92), who had left £50,000 to be used to provide four such halls/libraries across Edinburgh: Dundee Street; Hamilton Place (Stockbridge); McDonald Road; and Spittalfield Crescent (St Leonards). These halls and libraries transferred from the trustees of the Nelson bequest to Edinburgh Town Council in 1935. The original library was replaced in 1937-40 with the current building, designed by John Alexander William Grant (1885-1959). Built in an Art Deco style using yellow sandstone encasing a steel frame, it has a full-height three-bayed canted stair tower, incorporating the main entrance, on the corner of Murdoch Terrace (left) and Dundee Street (right). A carved panel above the entrance doorway, designed by sculptor Charles d'Orville Piklington Jackson (1887-1973), displays a fountain under a bridge. The elevations to both Murdoch Terrace and Dundee Street contain full-height small-paned, bronze-plated steel-framed windows, with decorative cast-iron panels at first-floor level. These comprise Art Nouveau style decoration in the outer panels with a central panel showing a scene representing a man, woman and child browsing in a library.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1459255

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap