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

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

Date 29/10/2014

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

Catalogue Number DP 203022

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/1459257

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap