Heaton Park Road, Victoria Library

The library was commissioned by Alderman Sir William Haswell Stephenson (Mayor of Newcastle in 1875, 1884, 1894 and 1902) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was opened as Victoria Free Library by Earl Grey on 15th October 1893. Stephenson also funded Elswick Library. The book stock at both libraries was identical as a cost-saving exercise, so the catalogue could be duplicated. The architect for the Victoria Library and Stephenson's last library, Lady Stephenson Library on Welbeck Road, was John W Dyson. A single-storey children's library was added to the west in 1939. It was extended again in the 1960s. It later became council offices and closed by 2008. It has since been renovated and houses a dental practice on the ground floor and commercial space on the first floor. The extensions have been demolished. Glazing has been replaced. The building is built in Flemish-bonded red brick and sandstone in Jacobean-revival style. Tiled roof with crested ridge tiles. A small but ornate timber ventilation lantern rises from the centre of the roof, rising to a tall finial. There is a ventilated chimneystack on the north-west corner of the roof, detailed with gablets, a pitched tiled roof and louvred openings. Three bays rise to a large gabled wall-head dormer which overhangs eaves level. Each dormer has a gable with sandstone coping, inset with a rectangular carved panel depicting the Stephenson Coat of Arms with the words 'FIDUS IN ARCANUM' (faithful to a secret), the Royal Coat of Arms and the Coat of Arms of the City of Newcastle. The main central entrance comprises a square-headed door with moulded architrave, flanked by Doric pilasters and rising to a lead-covered canopy on Doric consoles. There is a similar entrance in the western bay. Both have original panelled doors. The windows are transomed and mullioned but have aluminium windows. The central apron has an ornate carved sandstone panel inscribed 'VICTORIA LIBRARY'. On the west elevation there are scrolled curvilinear parapets and a stained glass window to the stairwell. The juvenile library annexe was removed in 2008. INTERIOR - the building has been subdivided into two units. The ground floor is occupied by a dental practice and the first floor by a commercial unit. A modern lift has been inserted. The east end has been substantially reconfigured in 2014. No original detailing remains. Doors have been replaced. Original skirting boards, fluted architraves and a closed-string stair with turned balusters survive. The first floor is now open plan. The original coal chute and floor tracks for machinery survive in the basement. LOCAL LIST