A renovation and extension by Hawkins Brown adds diverse community facilities to Plumstead Library

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Jack Hobhouse

Architect Hawkins Brown has completed the extension and conversion of a 1903 Grade-II-listed library building on Plumstead High Street to make a community building that combines library, sports and leisure, and cultural facilities. The project, for the Royal Borough of Greenwich, provides separate children’s and adults’ libraries, a cafe, flexible collaboration space, a gym and badminton court, and two large studios for performing arts, yoga, or exhibitions.

“The completed building demonstrates how new and old can come together to transform an underused community asset”, says Jack Penford Baker, project architect at Hawkins Brown. “The new spaces have been designed to allow as much flexibility as possible, so that over the years the building will adapt to meet the changing needs of the local community, with space provided for a range of activities – from performances and classes to local events and exhibitions.”

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The architects aimed to preserve and enhance the historic character of the existing library building while refurbishing the interior to bring it in line with modern standards. A two-storey extension to the rear accommodates new leisure facilities. At the threshold between old and new, a full-height glazed ‘box’ creates a level-access entrance that leads to an informal social space intended to emphasise the building’s function as an open civic centre. The extension has been constructed in the same materials as the library: “brick, glass and metal are used to create a modern building that is sympathetic, but stylistically distinct from its neighbour”, says the architect.

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At the heart of the new building, the entrance and ‘book mountain’ provide an informal social setting for reading, working or simply looking out across the rest of the building.

Many original features of the existing building were revealed during the strip-out, which have been restored in the refurbishment. Barrel-vaulted skylights in the upstairs studio, which were hidden away for over 70 years, have been opened up and now provide natural light within the flexible studio spaces. Original parquet flooring has been restored throughout the building, as has mosaic tiling in the main stairwell.

As well as enhancing the library’s existing functions, the scheme has opened the entirety of the listed building and extension to the public, when only 30 per cent was previously accessible. “The centre has been designed with openness and inclusiveness at its core”, says the architect, “allowing users to look across the full length of the building, through the different spaces and activities, from one end to the other, welcoming all”.

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