Brief description
Designed by Edwyn Evans Cronk. The land was donated by Henry Swaffield – a Cornish methodist who also mostly funded building the methodist church next door to the library (which opened in 1904).
It is not nationally listed, but does appear in a database of locally listed buildings, managed by Sevenoaks council (see link below). The listing says: “Architect: Edwyn Evans Cronk of Pall Mall and Sevenoaks. Eclectic design, Jacobean in flavour with borrowings from 17c and later. Two storey, in red brick with stone dressings. Street front ground floor has two mullioned and transomed four-light windows in stone. Central stone pilaster with foliate capital supports the base of large mullioned and transomed, canted oriel
window with ogee lead roof at first floor. Head and base of oriel have moulded stone cornices which extend across the front as cornice and plat band. Above is double-stepped scrolled gable with finial and shield in centre with seven acorn (Sevenoaks) motif. Entrance bay on west side with semicircular gable and circular stone decorative feature. Ogee lead roof over with elaborate weather vane. Mullioned and transomed window to first floor. Recessed double entrance doors, top half glazed; elaborate stone surround; round columns with foliate capitals support simple stone brackets topped by scrolled, rounded broken pediment with ball finial. Inside is plaque commemorating the generosity of both benefactors and some good stained glass.”
George Bennett was librarian from 1920-1965. In 1940 he set up the Citizens Advice Bureau in the old library.
Current status: Closed in 1986, when library services moved to a new site in Buckhurst Lane. The building is now used as offices. The brass plaque reads ‘Hand Picked Hotels’ And when I looked them up, their registered address is “The Old Library, Sevenoaks”. (2021)
- Year grant given (if known):
- Amount of grant: £3,000
- Year opened (and by who – if known): 1905
Photo of library in 2021 :

Details:

Old photo of library (postcard):
Nothing in my collection yet
Visited?
Yes, on a lovely sunny day in November 2021. Couldn’t go in, as the building is now offices, but at least as it was Sunday, there were no cars parked in front.
Web links:
- Sevenoaks carnegie free library – The architecture of Kent. Page includes a line drawing and the floorplan
- Timeline – created by Sevenoaks museum mentions the library, and includes a membership application, and fines ticket (scroll to 1905)
- 1939 aerial photo – shows The Drive – with library and church clearly visible.
- Sevenoaks council list of locally important buildings (pdf – see p22)
- Sevenoaks – a historical dictionary (pdf) compiled by David Killingray and Elizabeth Purves for the Sevenoaks Historical Society
