Image: Former Free Library & Technical College - Hagley Road, Stourbridge (8695283207)

Description: Victorian buildings at the bottom of Hagley Road in Stourbridge, West Midlands. This building is the former Free Library & Technical College. On the corner of Church Street and Hagley Road. It was Grade II listed in 1989 under the title Stourbridge College of Art. But the whole building is currently To Let, for office, leisure, studio and storage usage. <a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-217880-stourbridge-college-of-art-" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Stourbridge College of Art, Dudley</a> HAGLEY ROAD 1. 5106 SO 9084 1/103 Stourbridge College of Art GV II 2. College of Art, formerly town library and technical college. 1903-4 and 1908-9 by Frederick Woodward. Red brick with terracotta dressings and Cumberland and Welsh slate roofs with various brick stacks. In Netherlandish Renaissance style. Complex plan with various ranges occupying corner site. Mostly of 3 storeys, basement and attic. Entrance to corner on right has elaborate terracotta archway surmounted by relief figures within a tympanum. Steps lead to part-glazed doors filled with elaborate stained glass including portrait roundels of Kelvin, Shakespeare, Rubens and Mozart. Tall basket- arched windows over, with moulded terracotta frames and ornamental cornice hoods. Coped Dutch gable. To right a canted battlemented section containing the staircase with similar elaborately ornamented window frames. Further to right, facing Hagley Road, a 2-storey range in similar style. On right an elaborate terracotta archway leading to door, and a clock tower over with clock faces within balconied arches and a domed open belvedere on top. Behind this section rises the second span of the range facing Church Street. Wide sash windows, some with terracotta decoration. On the roof ridge an elaborate domed lantern. To left of the front entrance the end of the range facing Church Street which has a large polygonal 2-storey bay with battlemented parapet and large arched window over. To left the front facing Church Street which is a 9-window range with 4 slightly projecting gabled sections and similar fenestration with elaborate terracotta window surrounds. Further doorway in 2nd gable from left. 2 elaborate domed lanterns on roof. Interior: glazed doors and partitions, staircase with decorative cast-iron balustrade and a fine and extensive series of stained glass windows in art-nouveau style, one signed S Evans, Stained Glass Works, West Smethwick. These are most elaborate on the stairs but continue on both the Hagley Road and Church Street fronts and are a very important feature of the building. Andrew Carnegie contributed £3,000 to the library's foundation and a further £700 to the 1908 newsroom extension. Listing NGR: SO9038184050
Title: Former Free Library & Technical College - Hagley Road, Stourbridge (8695283207)
Credit: Former Free Library & Technical College - Hagley Road, Stourbridge
Author: Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes