You come across this striking library on the long walk from Long Eaton station to the town centre.
The Carnegie Legacy in England will tell you about its history:
Designed by 1906, by architects Gorman and Ross of Long Eaton and built by Messrs J & J Warner of Mickleover. Above the entrance is a "mosaiced tympanum with the figure of Learning set against a golden sunburst."
The library also has a large stained glass window by Stoddart of Nottingham. ...
Awarded Grade II listing in 1986. To east of the main entrance is a pair of free-standing iron gates, all that now remains of the original Art Nouveau railings that encircled the library. These are also included in the listing.
What is the history of the Long Eaton Carnegie grant? I always thought that most Carnegie libraries went to the Scotland of Andrew Carnegie's ancestry or to singularly deprived areas. (Our own Carnegie centre in Skewen seems to have resulted from a personal connection with Blanche, the American-born wife of local MP, Sir Samuel Thomas Evans.)
ReplyDeleteCarnegie's earlier libraries were in Scotland, but I believe that later they were more widely spread.
ReplyDeleteLoughborough has a Carnegie library and I think the museum in Melton Mowbray used to be one too.