The Central Library and the Town Hall Extension were both designed by the architect Vincent Harris.

It was the concept of the two buildings that they would sit together in harmony next to the Town Hall. To achieve this a curved wall was a feature of the Town Hall extension, mirroring the Pantheon shaped Central Library and creating a curved pedestrian walkway between the two.   You can see an aerial view below.

Here is an aerial view that shows the site after the library had been completed but before work had begun on the Townhall Extension.

Built of sandstone from Darley Dale this 8 storey high building was built to house a large council chamber at first floor level, as well as various growing municipal departments including gas, electricity, rates, rents, street cleaning and so on, and a cinema with demonstration rooms beneath ground level.

The building is Gothic in style, with heavy masonry, deep-pierced ornately carved tracery effects, and a typically steeply pitched roof. It has stained glass windows by George Kruger Gray.

The total cost of the building was £750,000 and it was opened officially by King George VI in 1938. A commemoration in the form of a carved inset stone on the library side at the Mount Street end marks the occasion.

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