Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/187

Rh hut in October 1891 it was removed to a building formerly used by the Water Commissioners as their offices. It is interesting to note how it was altered for its present use, and so adapted as to make a building well suited for its new purposes.

The street frontage is 120 feet, and the entrance is placed at the one end. The entrance-hall, which is 16 feet wide, gives access to a reading-room at the back, 78 feet by 45. Occupying the floor of this room are fourteen tables, each seating fourteen persons, a total of 196. The walls have no windows, the lighting being from the roof; and bookcases are carried up to a height of two storeys, those in the upper part being arranged in alcove cases, carried on a gallery 10 feet deep, as shown in Fig. 77. The ground floor of the front of the building is shelved for about 30,000 of the most popular books, a counter 48 feet in length separating it from the reading-room. A railing runs around the latter at a distance of about 5 feet from the wall. The rooms on the first floor (Fig. 78) are reached by a staircase ascending from the entrance-hall, and their level coincides with that of the gallery in the reading-room; they are arranged for the use of magazine readers, students, and for ladies. The magazine-room has seating accommodation for 104 persons, and is lit from the street on the one side, and the upper part of the reading-room on the other. The ladies' room seats thirty-two, and the students'