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Summary

Description

Peter L Henderson, 1903. 2-storey, 4-bay, Renaissance style, rectangular-plan library with tripartite segmental-arched windows and corniced segmental pediments to first floor bipartite windows. Pre-cast bullfaced concrete blocks with sandstone margins to principal elevation; render to sides and rear. First floor cornice; continuous cill course; eaves cornice punctuated by pediments. Entrance doorpiece with squat ionic columns and heavy round-arched hoodmould. Steep piended roof; central, square, lead ridge ventilator. Asymmetrical fenestration pattern to rear with forestair and cantilevered walkway to former caretaker's apartment.

Fixed timber casements and plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Cast-iron rainwater goods with downpipes dividing bays.

INTERIOR: good early Edwardian detailing to interior. Geometric tiled floor to lobby with etched glass panel inscribed 'Carnegie Library' to inner door. Wide dogleg stair with stone steps and cast iron balustrade leading to large first floor hall with 3 laminated timber trusses, combed ceiling and tongue and groove dado height panelling.

BOUNDARY WALLS: low rubble whinstone wall with stone copings to front.

Statement of Special Interest

Innerleithen Library is an early 20th century Carnegie Library executed with some good stone detailing and an early use of concrete facing blocks. Peter Lyle Barclay Henderson (1848-1912) was an Edinburgh based architect and engineer; the majority of his work being carried out for breweries and the licensed trade in Edinburgh.

The pre-cast concrete blocks used in the main elevation were not widely used in Scotland until the 1920's or 30's making the library a very early use of this material. It seems an anomaly that the blocks were used alongside fine stone dressings indicating that the concrete blocks were considered to be an innovative and prestigious material at the time.

The Library was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie as one of his many benefacted libraries to local communities. It falls within the group of Edwardian Renaissance style libraries built from around 1900. Provost Mathieson layed the foundation stone at a ceremony at which a sealed jar with contents recording the organisation of the new library, copies of the Scotsman and St Ronan's Standard, pictures of Innerleithen, and current coins were encased in the foundations as a time capsule. The building cost £2000 to build and was declared open on 11 February 1905 by Hew Morrison on behalf of Andrew Carnegie. Henderson carried out a further commission for a Carnegie Library in Kinross 2 years later in 1905.

The Library was built on new development land set aside to the E of the High Street and the body of the main village: Buccleuch Street and St Ronan's Terrace were opened up in 1897.

References

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