I was trying to find my way to the Grand Union Canal in Leamington Spa, but I again headed under the railway bridge near the station.

And then headed left up Avenue Road. It led to Park Drive, which then led to Prince's Drive and Old Warwick Road (the canal was near there).

This building was the Royal Leamington Spa Library and Art Gallery.

Grade II listed building.

<a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-490557-royal-leamington-spa-library-and-art-gal#.V0sGwr7wBYU" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Royal Leamington Spa Library and Art Gallery, Royal Leamington Spa</a>

   ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

   1208-1/0/10011 Royal Leamington Spa Library and Art G
   19-FEB-04 allery

   II
   Library, Art and Technical School and Art Gallery. 1900 and 1928. J. Mitchell Bottomley and A.C.Bunch, F.R.I.B.A. Red, English bond brick with terracotta dressings and a slate roof and plum-coloured, Flemish bond brick with sandstone dressings and a lead roof with skylights. The college and library have two principal storeys with attic and basement set around a rectangular light well with a skylight to the library reading room. The art gallery is of one storey and cruciform.
   The college and library have a symmetrical street façade with a central deep segmental porch of terracotta supported on brackets. Within are double, half-glazed doors with a fanlight and a small window to the porter's lodge. To either side are cross and tri-partite windows with terracotta mullions and transoms. The first floor has a tri-partite window to the centre with mullions and transom and to either side of this are sash windows. There is a central triangular gable and 2 semicircular gables at either side, all having terracotta decoration. The left reveal has 3 gables at right with cross windows to the ground floor and 3and 4-light windows to the first floor. At left is a projecting wing with semicircular gable and entrance to the college at ground floor level and 4 levels of staircase windows. The rear front is also symmetrical and has octagonal towers to the corners with timber and copper turrets. Between are cross windows to the basement and ground floor levels and sash windows to the first floor with 2 small triangular gables and 2 semicircular gables. There is a central timber and copper turret.
   The interior has studio spaces to both floors with cast iron columns and I-beams showing. There is a spinal corridor to both floors with glazed tiles below the dado. There are original doors, half-glazed partitions, wrought iron stair balusters, central heating radiators and pipes, tiles and guillotine-doored fume cupboards. The wash basins, each with a single brass tap, and the hydrant cupboards are also original.

   The art gallery extension is joined to the college/library at the east end. The external walls are blank and divided into panels by Tuscan pilasters with ashlar capitals, entablature and blocking course. The ends of the 3 wings have pedimental gables with stone niches at their centres, that to the south holding a figurative sculpture. The east end has a louvred oculus to the tympanum. The doorway, at west of the south wall, has panelled double doors and applied ashlar Tuscan columns to either side with a segmental pediment.
   The interior has a central glazed dome and the 4 wings each have a barrel-vaulted ceiling with coffering. Rows of these coffers are glazed creating top lit galleries, although these lights have now been covered on the outside. A deep entablature runs around the tops of the walls and there is a wood block floor divided into chequers of light and dark wood.

This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.

foundation stone