Battersea Reference Library

Battersea Central Library, the main library of the settlement, was built by the Battersea Vestry between 1889 and 1890, to a design by Edward Mountford. It incorporated a 24' by 45' galleried, glass-roofed reference library room. A decision was made after World War 1, based on agitation for increased reference library space, to add a new library building adjacent and connected to the existing library, on land to the east which had been earmarked for a School of Art and was being used by the Borough's Highway and Works department. The Borough's ability to afford a new building was connected to the Public Libraries Act 1919, which repealed section 2 of the Public Libraries Act 1892 limiting…

The Arts and Crafts design of the new building appears to have been by Harry Hyams, probably in conjunction with T. W. A. Hayward, the borough surveyor. The new building provides a 51' by 70' interior, divided into three bays by two sets of three steel columns supporting the ceiling. The roof of the central bay is a steel-arched glass roof glazed with leaded panes. An oak first-floor gallery runs around the outer walls. Both the columns and the gallery front are decorated, the former with oak-leaf and acorns and painted circular shields denoting science, art, philosophy and commerce; the latter with pierced carved diamond monograms incorporating a variety of mottos, the 1924 date, and a…