Barry Council Office and Library ( cy, Swyddfa a Llyfrgell y Cyngor Barri) is a local government building and public library located in
King Square,
Barry Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...
, Wales. The building, which was once the meeting place of Barry Municipal Borough Council, is a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
The first lending library in Barry was opened in 1890, at 144 Holton Road.
It later moved to a three-storey house on the Square, with the ground floor used as a reading room, the lending library on the second floor and caretaker's rooms on the top floor.
Following the formation of Barry Urban District Council in 1895, civic leaders decided that this arrangement was inadequate and chose to procure a purpose-built combined council office and public library complex. The site they selected was the old Maes-y-cwm Quarry, which had been excavated in 1900.
In 1903 the council applied to the
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
Trust for a grant to establish a purpose-built public library. The trust awarded a grant of £8,000.
Following a design competition, Charles E. Hutchinson and E. Harding Payne of London were selected to design the building in the
Edwardian Baroque style.
[ After the first stage of construction, the public library was officially opened by the ]Earl of Plymouth
Earl of Plymouth is a title that has been created three times: twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
History
The first creation was in 1675 for Charles FitzCharles, one of the dozens of illegitimate ...
on 1 March 1906. Following a second stage of construction, the council office was officially opened by the chairman of the council, Mr W.J. Williams, on 22 April 1908.
Architecture
The design involved a broadly symmetrical frontage with fifteen bays facing King Square. The central section featured a round-headed window on the ground floor and a clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
above. The left hand section, comprising the council office, featured a round-headed doorway on the ground floor flanked by paired full height Ionic order
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...
columns, a Venetian window
A Venetian window (also known as a Serlian window) is a large tripartite window which is a key element in Palladian architecture. Although Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) did not invent it, the window features largely in the work of the Italian a ...
on the first floor and an open segmental pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
containing a cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...
flanked by female figures above. The right hand section, comprising the public library, featured a round-headed doorway on the ground floor flanked by full height paired Ionic order pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s, a square window flanked by two narrow windows on the first floor, four small square windows on the attic floor and a pediment above.
Usage
The council office was established as the meeting place of Barry Urban District Council and, from 1939, of Barry Municipal Borough Council,. It briefly continued to be the local seat of government after Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council
The Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council was the local authority for the Vale of Glamorgan in South Glamorgan, Wales, created in 1974 and reconstituted in 1996 as the Vale of Glamorgan Council unitary authority. It was a second tier district authority ...
was formed in 1974. The council then moved to new civic offices in Holton Road in 1981.
After the public library moved to temporary facilities at the town's leisure centre in 2001, a major refurbishment of the whole complex was carried out.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry Council Office And Library
Government buildings completed in 1908
Carnegie libraries in Wales
Libraries in Wales
Buildings and structures in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan
Clock towers in the United Kingdom
Grade II listed buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan
1908 establishments in Wales
City and town halls in Wales
Government buildings with domes