46: Ancaster stone Pt3! The Hackney Central Library.

^{The old Hackney Central Library ©GMH2022}

Another great example of turn of the century Ancaster use is in the old Hackney Central Library, shut in the later 1990s and now mainly used by the Hackney Picturehouse cinema but also the Rising Tide music studios. The new Hackney Central Library opened across the road in the Town Hall Square in 1999.

“After adopting the Public Libraries Acts in 1903, the council bought land in Mare Street from the L.C.C. for a central library, designed by Henry Crouch, … built with funds from Andrew Carnegie, and opened in 1908.” [1]

There is a visible foundation stone laid by HRH Princess Christian on 23 March 1907 on the west of the building. [2] The library was officially opened on the28 May 1908 by the Prince and Princess of Wales with much pomp. [3]

How the library design was decided was described in detail by The Builder in 1906 and is worth reproducing in full! 😀

“HACKNEY CENTRAL LIBRARY COMPETITION.

“The public library is perhaps the most popular subject for competition amongst architects, and provides an occasion for the youth of the profession to try its skill. It is therefore not surprising that the request for designs for a Central Library for the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney should meet with the very large response represented in the 152 sets of drawings on view at the Corporation Baths. Each set consists of ?-in. scale plans, elevations, and sections, ?-in. scale details and perspective view ; and the sight of this enormous amount of wasted work lining the upper walls and the entire extent of the tank of a very large swimming-bath is a matter for serious reflection. The depression produced upon the spectator is somewhat lessened when it is seen that at least one-third of the schemes are absolutely without merit of any kind, and represent the extraordinary diversion of thought and ideal existing in the minds of the increasing number of followers of the art of architecture.”

“Ten thousand pounds is the amount of money at disposal for a building which is to occupy an irregular quadrilateral site measuring about 84 ft. to Mare-street, 128 ft. to Paragon-road. 46 ft. to Valette-road, and 118 ft. to a party boundary on the north side. The usual accommodation is required, and the 152 ways of regarding the problem are interesting and remarkable. With the award and report of the assessor, Mr. J. W. Simpson, we are in entire agreement.

The three premiated designs have angle approaches. Mr. H. A. Crouch, No. 26, is the winner of the competition with a design which we say without hesitation is very much the best’.

The architecture is admirably expressive of the purpose of the building. A stone rusticated angle pavilion with a semi-circular open porch is the dominant feature.

The fronts are of brick and stone, each terminated by a stone projection. There is a sense of dignity in the scheme, which is well expressed in an excellent view, and the deep brick frieze, from which windows are excluded, supplies a breadth and massiveness of considerable value. The Borough Council is to be congratulated upon the successful issue of the competition.”
The Builder, July 14, 1906 [4]

A follow up notice a few months after seems to show that the original design was for Bath Stone, from the Monks Park quarry at Corsham, not Ancaster though! [5]

“This design, which was placed first by Mr. J. W. Simpson, the assessor, in a recent open competition, provides accommodation for a central library which it is intended to erect at the corner of Mare-street and Paragon-street, Hackney.

It is intended to face the building with Monks Park stone and red brick, while the construction will be fireproof throughout. The architect is Mr. Henry A. Crouch.” [4]

^{Ancaster ‘Weatherbed’ at the old Hackney Central Library ©GMH2022}

The building as it was built is clearly Ancaster and of the ‘streaky bacon’ Weatherbed type. See https://buildinglondon.blog/2022/08/06/44-ancaster-and-its-streaky-bacon-stone-pt1/

There has been some confusion in a couple of articles with the neighbouring building that was built as the Hackney Methodist Central Hall. For example even the current occupiers, the Hackney Picturehouse, wrongly state of their building “Originally Hackney Central Library and later a concert venue, this landmark building was converted into a cinema in 2011,” accompanied by a picture of what was Hackney Methodist Hall, which forms the bulk of the cinema today. [6] [7]

^{The 1925 Hackney Methodist Central Hall ©GMH2022}

The Methodist Central Hall was in fact built in almost 2 decades after the Central Library and opened in 1925 [8] “Hackney Central Hall, Mare Street. (fn. 321) Site on E. side, between Salvation Army hall and central libr., secured 1909 to replace Richmond Rd. ch. Bldg. of three storeys and seven bays, faced in yellow stone, with cornice and Ionic pilasters, 1924-5:” [9] [10]

^{Unknown limestone at the old Hackney Central Hall. Not streaky bacon Ancaster Weatherbed ©GMH2022}

Ruth Siddell writing in the fascinating ‘Urban Geology in Hackney: An Undersong by Ruth Siddall & Joshua Bilton’, “a psychogeological walk around Hackney” also appears to conflate the two buildings writing, “Across the road from the Town Hall is Hackney Picturehouse. This is also built from a shallow marine, Jurassic limestone, but this is around 15 Ma older than the Portland Stone and from a separate marine basin, that of the Lincolnshire Limestones. This is Ancaster Oolite, notably more honey-coloured, due to the presence of small quantities of yellow ochre (iron oxide hydroxide). This is another of England’s great building stones. Its has a distinctive, brindled pattern which has led to it being colloquially called ‘streaky bacon’”. [11]

She must be referring here to the 1906 Hackney Central Library building not the 1925 Central Hall building, which while made of a limestone, that actually maybe could be Ancaster, it is clearly different and not the ‘streaky bacon’ Ancaster.