West Country Modernism logo

West Country Modernism

Subscribe
Archives
July 31, 2025

Saltash Library, Cornwall (1963)

Saltash’s miniature Brutalist gem is an exploration of what libraries mean to people, and a history of the mid-century social contract.

“I felt as if I could think clearly there.”

Public libraries are curious places. They are a place to read, to discover, to think. They are so much more than books. They are a refuge, freely offered to everyone. It could be the school pupil looking for a quiet place to study, or the Open University student needing access to books they can’t afford. Libraries used to lend vinyl, and sheet music, even artwork to hang on your wall. A librarian I know hiked through snowstorms in 2018 to open her library: she knew she would be offering a free, warm, dry place for rough sleepers.

Sprinkled across the west country there are mid-century libraries. Monuments, for now at least, to the social contract and the belief that everyone deserved access to knowledge.

I’m taking a deep dive into one such library. A building compared to Le Corbusier and considered “one of the best post-war buildings in the county” in Pevsner.

Concrete walls soar up to a double height butterfly roof. A curtain wall of glass is deeply recessed under the white swoop of the roof, and narrow oval pilotis hold it up.
Saltash Library. (Image © Mags L Halliday 2025)
Want to read the full issue?
Bluesky
Powered by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.